Kodiaks men’s team looks to build off strong first half

By Lethbridge Herald on October 5, 2023.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge College Kodiaks ÔJoel McLeod, in green, and Aiden Lewko battle during a possession drill during practice on Thursday.

By Justin Seward

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s soccer team are feeling good about the rest of the regular season after a strong start.

The first half saw the team win four straight  games out of the gate before dropping their first game of the year in a 7-0 home loss to SAIT last weekend.

Ben Knight spoke about what it meant to start the season 4-0.

“I think it shows that we are winners,” said Knight.

“There’s always going to be some adversity like we had last weekend with our first loss. But that SAIT team is ranked second in the nation. It was a good test, we obviously came up short, but we got another chance to play them again in a few weeks. So hopefully we can redeem ourselves there.”

Belief came to mind when Knight was asked about what got stronger as the first half went along.

“We all grew to get to know each other a little more and how we play and it’s definitely come together pretty well ,” said Knight.

Knight does not think the team has played its best yet.

“We’ve played OK and we still managed to win the four games in a row ,” he said.

“I think if we start actually producing some good games, full 90-minute performances, I think we’re going to start maybe burying some teams early in games. And it’s going to look good hopefully going into provincials and then nationals.”

“I think the boys really bounded together,” said rookie Ryder Skolka.

“We have a really good group of boys today. Everyone’s competing for a spot, which is good. Yeah, I mean, we’ve been finishing our chances which is nice. There’s not really a weak spot on our team which I like ,and yeah going into the second half, hopefully we can continue winning our games and continue scoring goals.”

Head coach Sean Carey was thrilled with the first half.

“I’m really thrilled,” said head coach Sean Carey.

“Like we would’ve taken 4-1 at the start of the season, not knowing what comes in this league and the parity that we figured would be in this league this year. So, I think you can’t be anything but thrilled (to) be in second place behind a quality team in SAIT and we’re still ranked in the nation’s top 15. So I think that’s a really positive and …good platform for the boys to  like keep building on for these next five games.”

The Kodiaks can clinch second place in the South Division  playoffs as early as this weekend with wins against Olds College and Red Deer Polytechnic on the road or six points in their five remaining games.