Selects repeat as champs at Sam Steele Days tourney
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The best result for the Nelson Selects would be to repeat at champions of the Sam Steele Day’s U14 Boy’s Soccer Tournament while going unscathed in the injury department.
The soccer Gods must have been smiling on the Heritage City lot as the Select swept through the competition en route to the gold medal.
“Last year, after losing in playdowns, we played in (Sam Steele) tournament and wanted to prove something to ourselves,” said coach Dan Szabo.
“We won it. This year we wanted to avoid that same fate as we now had the targets on our backs. More importantly we wanted to get through this injury free.”
Nelson opened the tourney by blasting the Creston Blitz 6-0.
Micah May opened the scoring midway through the first half taking a James Miller and hitting it home. Minutes later, Nicholas Wethal added to that converting a corner kick and Galen Boulanger would finish the first half scoring.
In the second, Boulanger added another with 30-yard blast before May completed the scoring with his second and third goals of the game.
Saturday afternoon saw the Selects struggled against an improved Kootenay South side, stealing a 2-1 victory.
Nolan Percival and May scored for Nelson.
“We have had a relatively easy time with Kootenay South in the past but all the credit too them, they worked hard,” Szabo explained.
“We had some bad breaks as well. One of those games.”
Nelson clinched the gold medal Sunday morning by posting a 3-0 shutout over East Kootenay Rovers of Cranbrook.
Galen Boulanger scored twice while May added a single for the Selects.
Nelson concluded the tournament with a 2-1 win over a physical Columbia Valley squad. Boulanger scored twice for Nelson while Percival registered the shutout between the pipes.
Percival played most of the games in goal for Nelson with Spencer Szabo sharing the duties for one half of game two.
The Selects return to the training pitch in preparation for the B.C. Soccer Provincial B Cup July 7-10 in Penticton.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
