WITH the wild ride the Windsor Dukes senior boys soccer team has had this season it's only fitting that their campaign ended with a little more drama as they battled to a fourth place finish at the provincial AA championships held this week in Burnaby.
The Dukes appeared to be one of the teams to beat in the tournament after winning their round robin group to make the semifinals but a last-minute overtime loss followed by a shootout defeat left them one step short of the medal podium. They say fourth is the toughest place to finish, but head coach Stewart Currie said his boys weren't too broken up about it.
"They got over it," he said with a laugh. "They had a lot of fun, it was a good experience for them."
In the semifinal the Dukes faced Victoria's Glenlyon Norfolk, the eventual tournament champions, and the game went into overtime tied 1-1. With a shootout looming the Dukes gave up a goal with only two minutes left in the second half of overtime, losing 2-1 after their last-ditch shot in the game's final seconds sailed just wide.
"We almost tied it up in the last 30 seconds," said Currie. "That was a very even game."
In the bronze medal game against Okanagan Mission, the Dukes fell behind in the first half but battled back to send it into overtime again with a 1-1 score. In overtime the Dukes appeared to win it twice. First Evan Puri scored a cracker of a goal to put Windsor ahead only to see Okanagan tie it up in the dying minutes. Again Windsor blasted away in the final seconds, this time seeing their lastditch shot clang off the crossbar. In the following shootout Okanagan prevailed 4-2 to take the third-place medals.
"That was just a great game, back and forth," said Currie, who coached the team along with his brother Don. The Dukes were led by Puri, Cliff Carley, Shawn Currie, Derek Santos, David Echner and goalie Taylor Williams, said Currie. With the way the whole team played they very easily could have been provincial champions, he said.
"The kids played fantastic. . . . The coach on Okanagan figured we were the best team in the tournament," he said. "Soccer is tough, right. You can be all over a team and still not win. That's just the way it bounces."
Earlier in the year the Dukes overcame a huge obstacle when it was discovered that they had used an ineligible player for much of the regular season and were forced to forfeit a number of games. In a show of great sportsmanship, all of the teams that they had previously played agreed to replay the games. Windsor played six games in the season's final eight days, winning them all to climb back to the top of the standings.
Through it all his players have maintained great attitudes, said Currie.
"There was no complaining or anything," he said. "They all just came to play soccer."
