Ben Knight, middle fielder and captain of the Lethbridge College Kodiaks prepares to take a corner kick in a five-to-zero victory against the Alberta-Augustana Vikings on Sept. 7, 2019 at the Servus Sports Centre.
The Lethbridge College Kodiaks shut out the Augustana Vikings 5-0 in their first tilt of the season.
The Kodiaks held their opponent to nine total shots with only three of the shots being on target as the Kodiaks outshot them 28-9 in the game.
Jaden Veluw, centre back for the Kodiaks praised the team’s performance on the defensive side of the field.
“It was a team effort. We were all winning battles, all getting to the balls. We were all smart at the back and didn’t give anything away,” said Veluw.
The defenseman went on to praise the Kodiaks goalkeeper, Cody Ferguson, saying the keeper made some big saves down the stretch. Veluw said that this is his first year playing for the Kodiaks and the ACAC division. Adding he believes that the SAIT Trojans will be the hardest team to beat this season.
On the offensive side of the field, the Kodiaks were just too fast for the Vikings as they were able to outpace their opponents on multiple occasions. This led to goals from five different players, one of which was scored by Veluw, who was later named the player of the game for the Kodiaks. Veluw thinks the team has a lot of offensive talent but says there was one main issue.
“We did a good job of getting past their defenders. If we could have stayed onside, we might have scored a lot more,” he said.
Sean Carey, Kodiaks coach had a game plan for Lethbridge’s offence going into the encounter against Augustana.
“We wanted to go at them with speed, make sure that we had the right guys up front, where hopefully, we could exploit them with our skill and just go out there and attack,” explained Carey.
The Kodiaks coach also looks forward to the future, saying that his team is very balanced as the team believes that they can go to the Canadian College Athletic Association National championships this season. Carey continued, saying that the biggest story is that they have a veteran team with a lot of players coming back this season.
The Kodiaks were not able to have the same success in their second game of the weekend as they fell to Red Deer College 3-2 on Sept. 8.
The Kodiaks will try to bounce back as they visit Ambrose College on Sept. 14 at 2 p.m., before returning home when they play Canadian Mennonite University on Sept. 15 at 2 p.m.
