This weekend saw the U11-12 Development Team kick off our calendar of events with a road trip to Penticton.

In freezing cold conditions (the heating at the Penticton indoor facility was not working !), we trained for an hour with an inter squad game, followed by back to back hour long matches against Penticton Pinnacles FC U11-12 boys.

The first game started well for us, as we enjoyed long spells of possession and created several chances. However, Penticton can play a bit as well, and it was the host team who took the lead with a stunning strike from Soccaskool old friend Saion. Soccaskool came back pretty strongly after that and soon found themselves with a 3-1 lead, with goals from Daxton, Diego and Reese. Penticton were dangerous on the break though, and the game turned into a pretty entertaining back and forth affair, with the scores tied up at 3-3 by half time. Soccaskool began to assert themselves in the second half. One of the big improvements for our team this year is the depth of quality and competition in our group allowing us to always introduce good quality players from the bench. This Soccaskool U11-12 squad is a formidable group of players, especially when competing with teams at their own age level. This was perfectly demonstrated in our second half performance as we eventually gained control of the match and ran out comfortable 7-3 winners, with further goals from Diego, Reese, and Koen (2)

The second game was a much more one sided affair, with our Soccaskool team on the front foot from the start. We scored some spectacular goals in a first half full of attacking play. The game would end in an 8-1 victory for Soccaskool. Penticton, to their credit, never gave up and fought hard throughout the match. Soccaskool goals came from Koen (2), Kai (2), Reese, Diego, Daxton, and the pick of the bunch from Grayson. Notable performances over the two games, aside from the goalscorers, came from Trayton and Jackson….both these players are just getting better and better !

Well done to our U11-12 boys for getting our year off to a good start ! Next week it is the turn of our U10s to hit the road and start their year with a similar event.