For the second straight tournament, the Lake City Secondary School (LCSS) Falcons senior boys' soccer team had to settle for second place.
It was déjà vu for LCSS, who lost another close one-nothing match to eventual champions Hope Secondary Mustangs on a late goal in the tournament final Saturday. LCSS boys had lost 1-0 to Hope in an identical fashion at their 10-team home tournament two weekends ago, also surrendering a late winning goal.
This time around the Falcons were looking for a different result when they travelled to Hope Secondary for their nine-team tourney recently
"We were hoping to get a little payback against Hope, but they're a very strong team and well organized and tough to break down," said LCSS coach Sean Glanville. "We have to play mistake-free soccer to beat a team like that and we made a few mental mistakes that cost us."
The Falcons dominated in their round robin group, defeating South Okanagan Secondary of Oliver 3-1 and Clearwater Secondary 3-0 to win Group B.
LCSS then defeated a strong Pemberton Secondary team 1-0 in the semi finals, earning themselves a silver medal.
Jayden Fradsham picked up a pair of shutouts in goal and was named a tournament all-star along with Grady Watson, who led the team in scoring, including the game-winner versus Pemberton.
Other members of the silver medal squad include Kangmin Kwon, Owen Kinley, Ty Thiessen, Tobias Baumann, Jasper Bird, Olen Grady, Greysen Hutchins, Tobin Kruus, Marco Li, Jigar Sidhu, Cody Thiessen, Samardeep Sidhu, Brian Kwon and Dominic Billyboy.
The LCSS boys' were also supported with three talented players from Peter Skene Ogden Secondary of 100 Mile House, including Abhi Mann, Sam Bimbhra and Damien Ma. Bimbhra was extremely reliable all weekend on defence for LCSS and earned a tournament all star for himself.
Next up for LCSS is the North Central AA Zone Championships in Prince George, which kicks off on Tuesday, October 14 and wraps up on Thursday. This year sees the Falcons drop down from AAA tier to AA under the new guidelines from BC School Sports.
Last year, the Falcons had a shock upset over the favoured North Peace Secondary of Fort St. John to win the AAA zones and make the provincial finals.
This season, with the drop to AA, the Falcons will be one of six schools vying for a trip to the provincials.
Among them are LCSS, four Prince George schools, including D.P. Todd, Duchess Park, Kelly Road and College Heights Secondary and South Peace Secondary of Dawson Creek. The zone rankings have not been released yet, but the Falcons look to be seeded one or two and could be considered one of the teams with a legitimate chance to win the zones.