Young soccer players from Terrace blew out Prince George and beat the host team in the final game of the 2021 “Tourney of the North” on Sept. 18, and Sept. 19, 2021, in Smithers.
Unlike other teams in the tournament, Terrace Youth Soccer Association’s (TYSA) U12 boys only practiced together as a team a couple of times before taking the pitch on the weekend.
That didn’t stop them from comfortably handling Prince George 7-2 in the tournament opener. The next game was a physical affair, with Terrace ending up on the wrong end of two penalty kicks in a 2-2 draw with Quesnel.
Terrace faced Smithers in the final game and was able to edge the hosts in a tight contest, securing a 3-2 win and first place with a record of two wins and one draw.
“We were very pleasantly surprised how our U12 boys did out there, because you can see the skill level of the other teams were pretty high caliber,” said Paula Ferretti, TYSA president.
The soccer association kept the large majority of its season in-house, avoiding travel for the sake of safety during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of the season, TYSA agreed to participate in the Tourney of the North and quickly set up tryouts and a few practices.
Ferretti said that organizers went “above and beyond” with COVID-19 safety measures, and she was happy with the decision to cap off the year by sending U12 and U14 boys and girls teams to a tournament.
“Just a good way to end the season since we weren’t doing playoffs or anything like that,” she said.
“We’re pretty excited for next year, knowing that hopefully things settle a little bit and we can pre-plan and hopefully go to some more tournaments because I think there’s a lot of potential for these boys.”