Trojans fall in penalties, will play for ACAC bronze

CALGARY, ALTA., (Oct. 27, 2018) — An inability to capitalize on their chances cost the SAIT Trojans men's soccer team.

The Trojans were upset Saturday afternoon, falling 1-0 to the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder in penalty kicks in their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men's Soccer Championship semifinal game played at SAIT's Cohos Commons Field.

"We were the better team on the field for 120 minutes, but we didn't make good on our chances to score," said Trojans head coach Connor Brady. "I think we thought today was going to be a formality, and that's never an approach you want to take. At the end of the day, give credit to Concordia. They worked hard all day."

SAIT now falls to the event's bronze medal game Sunday morning at 11:30am against the loser of Saturday's late game between the NAIT Ooks and the Lethbridge College Kodiaks.

And while it's not the medal they want to be playing for, Brady expects his team to finish the season strong.

"This group has a tremendous amount of pride and are proud to be Trojans," Brady added. "We won't say much about it, we'll just come out and show that we are a better team than we showed today."

SAIT was able to put the ball in the back of the net twice during the game, but both goals were called back – one due to being offside, the second due to the Trojans player knocking the ball out of the hands of the Thunder goalkeeper when he had control.

When 90 minutes of play was not enough to declare a winner, the teams went to two 15-minute overtime halves.

Again, that was not enough soccer for the teams, as they needed to go to penalty kicks to figure things out.

At that point, the game was anyone's to win.

"We said that at half, we told them at the end of regulation, we told them again at the overtime half; if we figure it out and bury one, this is going to come back and bite us, and unfortunately, that's what happened today."

Thunder goalkeeper Adam Ziccarelli, who made 13 saves during the game, made an immediate statement in the penalty kick round, stopping the first shot sent his way.

After watching four of his teammates score, Ziccarelli again stopped a Trojans penalty kick to win the game.

Concordia will play the winner of Saturday's late game between Lethbridge College and the NAIT Ooks in Sunday's 4pm championship final.

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