A hat trick and clean sheet capped a fantastic futsal finish for Okotoks United.
Okotoks ran away with the U15 futsal Tier 2 division gold medal on Sunday to highlight the second weekend of the Anthem Communities Cup tournament at the Cavalry FC Regional Field House.
“This weekend it was really impressive to see them come together,” said Okotoks coach and technical director Clint Dunford. “They’re a U14 Tier 2 team we bumped up to U15 for this tournament and they’re also playing provincials in middle of the March at U15 Tier 2, so we thought let’s give them a taste of an older age group.
“And at a new format as well, we played one futsal game in a tournament earlier this season, but they’ve been a very good group this season. They’re top of the table in their league and we’re coming into this with some confidence and played really, really well.”
Okotoks blanked West Hills United 5-0 in the gold medal game and outscored its opposition by a 22-4 margin in its four wins.
“They showed a little bit of their technical ability and their class on this surface and this different style of a game,” Dunford said. “It’s something we’ve been pushing and promoting more within their play, they’ve got a couple technical, gifted players and that really allowed them to show it, futsal is a really skillful game where you can express yourself.
“And I think you saw a couple of individuals really able to do that in this.”
The dynamic duo of Lucas Oncea and David Hernandez had their footprints all over the gold medal game with the former a natural hat trick and latter setting up a trio of goals before scoring a worldlie on an individual run through the heart of the defence.
“Lucas, probably scored upwards of nine, 10 goals this weekend,” Dunford added. “His partner in crime, David, he’s class. He scored an unreal goal, twisting and turning and dribbling all the way through.”
At the other end of the floor, goalkeeper Sebastian Burnham secured his second clean sheet of the weekend in the gold medal game with a number of timely saves.
“He’s kind of a player turned goalkeeper just over the last year,” Dunford said. “He stepped up this season and this futsal format, bit of a smaller goal and different surface, but he was really able to excel.”
The ACC, a three-week competition, has now seen Okotoks pick up the gold medal in U15 futsal Tier 2, the top division and oldest age group, on consecutive weekends.
“It shows the growth of the program at those levels,” Dunford said. “It’s a community club, for sure, but it’s a club that has a piece of excellence to it and it’s something we’re trying to promote and show that we have this within the club as well.
“You can stay here in Okotoks, you don’t have to drive into the city and join for a city club anymore. You can stay here and still get that high level competition you’re looking for.”
In addition, Okotoks earned a trio of silver medals at the ACC.
In the U12 boardless Tier 3 ranks, Okotoks posted a 2-1 record and played to a 3-1 loss in the final versus LFC White. In U12 futsal Tier 2, Okotoks was undefeated in pool play and advanced to the final and were 3-0-1 and moved to the championship game in U10 boardless Tier 2.
Off the floor, Dunford said it’s a team effort to put on a successful event of this magnitude.
“That’s what these events are from a club standpoint, it’s a little bit of everyone pulling together to take a piece and to own it to make it what it is,” he said. “We’ve had so many positive comments from people coming to participate, and I think it’s the people we have involved in the tournament, Angela and Peter (Mundy), myself, all of the volunteers and staff, we care about the product we’re putting out there.
“We see a lot of returning faces and teams that come out.”
The third and final weekend of the competition goes Jan. 24-26 at the field house.
For more information, go to okotoksunitedsoccer.ca.
