Trojans upset in ACAC semifinal

EDMONTON, ALTA., (Oct. 26, 2019) - Looking to exercise demons from last year, the SAIT Trojans men's soccer team suffered the exact same fate.

For the second year in a row, penalty kicks led to the Trojans being upset in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men's Soccer Championship semifinal. 

Last year, it was a 1-0 decision to the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder that kept them from the gold medal final. This year, it was a 2-1 loss to the Red Deer College Kings.

In Saturday night's contest, the Kings got on the board first when Turner Johnson headed in a corner kick just six minutes into the game to put SAIT on their heels early.

The Trojans finally responded in the 29th minute when Martin Bertolesi (2nd year, Calgary, Business Administration) found the back of the net.

After that, the teams struggled to find any offence.

When the whistle blew at the end of the second half, the teams remained tied, sending the game to 30 minutes of extra time. After that failed to solve anything, the teams went to penalty kicks.

All five Kings players found the back of the net, but SAIT's Eduardo Filho (4th year, Paracatu, Brazil, Environmental Technology) had his attempt stopped by Red Deer keeper Jacob Hamilton to end things.

A small consolation was that it was not the night's only upset. In the other semifinal, the Lethbridge College Kodiaks shocked the host NAIT Ooks 2-0.

SAIT and NAIT will now meet for the bronze medal on Sunday at 1:30pm.

Red Deer College and Lethbridge College will play for gold at 6:30pm.