After 28 hard fought matches, Danny Macdonald’s orange team lifted the Yukon Brewing Co-Ed invitational tournament trophy in a fabulous weekend of soccer.

Not many people would’ve thought that the orange team would finish higher than last, but with astute captaincy, hard work and a great team spirit they prevailed. The orange team had a mixture of gnarled veterans, and fresh faced youngsters as they went unbeaten through the whole tournament.

The Red and Black teams were snapping at their heels for a chance to be crowned victors, but Orange were a little to streetwise, with players like Greg Grady, Hector Lang, Elise Bingeman, and Valerii Shapoval playing well.

Red were going well until a nasty injury took Franklin Fru out of the tournament. They missed his goals in the final game, but were pleased with the effort Sammy Demchuk and Raghava Simha put in.

Team Black’s stars were JP Ladroue and Jamie Joe Hudson, but they couldn’t keep the consistency to go all the way. Other players who caught the eye were Team FH’s Fleur Marsella and Thomas Reixinger, Grey’s Pat Zuccarini and Rebekka Zalatan, Yellow’s Kruno Kunovic and and Blue’s Cheryl Ritz and Keith Welch.

There were some tired limbs at the awards ceremony afterward, where Simon Pulido won the over 50’s player of the tournament. Lara Herry Saint Onge picked up the MVP womens award, with Valerii Shapoval the mens. George Maratos finally made it back to Whitehorse from Dawson, and had a mixed bag of a weekend.

He picked up the goal of the tournament for a coast-to-coast effort.

However, he forgot that he is not really that good outside of his area, when he passed the ball directly to an opposition player, who fired past the hapless keeper when he was still stranded in no man’s land. It was a great event and thanks to all the players involved.

– submitted by ANDY TODD