A number of Mission Mud Dawgs were in Las Vegas, Nevada last weekend for the U15 middle school tournament where they made it to the semi-finals before falling to Team Texas, 8-3.
The Mission team was comprised of 10 members of the provincial championship U12 team, and five U14 players.
The round robin competition saw the Mud Dawgs win three straight over Nevada-based teams, which set up the local players for a Saturday night showdown against a regional select team from the western United States.
The game was tied at 4-4 until Hayden Vetterl finished off a nice passing play from Ethan Symons and Imat Grewal to give the Mud Dawgs the lead, said coach Harpreet Grewal.
Later in the game, defenders Brenden Symons, Jacob Gossen and netminder Tej Grewal held off the Americans until Caleb Pearson snagged an insurance goal to seal the game.
Garret Winter and Owen Gossen won some key face-offs in this close game to give Mission an edge, noted Grewal.
In the quarter finals, the team was down early in the game but strong defending by Ben Venables and Steven Archachan kept the team close until the speedy mid-field play of David and Michael Geldart, and Matthew Abbott could get attack players Issak Tremblay, Grewal, and Vetterl key possessions to finish off a 7-3 victory, said Grewal.
The semi-final match against Team Texas proved to be too much for the team as they dropped an 8-3 decision to a much bigger team.
Grewal said, “This is our second year of losing in the semi-finals, but this team is much younger than last year’s squad. We have 10 players eligible to play next year, so our goal will be to win it all in 2014.”