The Olds College Broncos men's and women's soccer teams came up short on the weekend against the SAIT Trojans, with the women being defeated 3-0 and the men losing a close 4-3 contest at Elks Field in Olds.
Both teams now sport identical 1-4 records on the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference season.
The women played a good game and stayed with the Trojans until the last seven minutes, in which the Trojans struck for all of their goals, said Mark Oxer, the Broncos' head coach.
“We had opportunities to score on them but didn't finish and they put three goals away in the last seven minutes of the second half, but other than that … if we could have potted one or two goals, it definitely would have changed the dynamic of the game,” he said.
On the men's side, Oxer said despite being down to 10 men on the field and 3-0 on the scoreboard, the team made a game of it coming back to tie it at 3-3. A SAIT player was also ejected from the game, evening it out.
“When that happened, it completely changed the dynamic of the game and we were able to pot three goals of our own to tie the game … and we actually had the run of play in the second half and were doing well, but the boys kind of let off the gas pedal with about seven minutes left to go, and SAIT managed to pot one … with about two minutes left, but it was against the run of play,” he said.
Oxer said he is seeing continual improvement from both teams. SAIT's men are undefeated thus far at 5-0 and had only given up three goals all season prior to tangling with the Broncos.
“It just shows that we're able to run with the best. We gave up a late goal unfortunately, but for all intents and purposes, there was no difference between the teams on the day,” he said.
Oxer is looking forward to this weekend's matchups against the Medicine Hat Rattlers and the Lethbridge College Kodiaks.
