The Yukon Brewing Invitational soccer tournament featured a couple of key upset victories and winners from both sides of the border this weekend in Whitehorse.

The tournament is the Yukon's version of Juneau's Shamrock Invitational Tournament, which saw two Whitehorse teams travel to the Alaskan capital to compete last month.

Four teams battled for supremacy in both the Lead Dog Co-Ed and Yukon Gold Over-35 divisions, with one Juneau team participating in each.

"It's about fun and bringing people up here,” said organizer Sylvain Laferriere of the year-end tournament.

"For the indoor season, it's over. We ended with that. We have co-ed and over-35 players competing. It's kind of the end of the season for everyone.”

The tournament grew in numbers this year, with 78 players competing in the three-day event.

Juneau won the over-35 division, beating Whitehorse Black 3-1, while Black beat Red 5-4 in an all-Whitehorse co-ed final.

Individual goalscorers were unavailable.

"That's the good thing about my tournament,” said Laferriere. "I don't try to make it about the players, but the teams.”

Juneau finished first after storming out to a 3-0 round robin record and kept that momentum going in the semifinal with a 6-1 win over fourth-place Whitehorse Red.

Because Juneau made the final over-35 game, the game was rescheduled from noon to 10 a.m.

In Sunday's co-ed division final, Black was able to build a lead and then hang on to defeat Red 5-4 to win the tournament trophy.

"We were able to finish,” said Black player Nina Connell. "That was the biggest thing. We capitalized on our opportunities. That was kind of a struggle in the first few round robin games. We were able to finish in both the final and semifinal, so that kind of pushed us ahead.”

Connell, who suited up alongside her father Jim Connell, admitted her team was surprised to even be in the final, after losing two of three games in the tournament round robin.

"It was the tournament of upsets,” she said. "The red team we were playing didn't win a game in the round robin, so we actually thought that we would be playing them for third.”

However, both teams won their semifinal games Saturday afternoon.

Fourth-place Red knocked off first-place Blue 4-3, and then third-place Black eliminated second-place Juneau 4-1 to force the unlikely championship game.

"We were pretty excited to be in the final,” Connell chuckled. "Juneau had a very strong team.”

Wins and losses aside, she said the tournament is foundationally about fun.

"It's a blast,” Connell said. "Being able to come in on a weekend and just play with people you know throughout the city and also teams from Juneau … it's just such great camaraderie. It was just a lot of fun and everyone got along great. We all go out there and just have a smile on our face when we're playing. That's the biggest thing – just to have fun.”

Laferriere said the shared tournaments between the two sister cities has rekindled interest in the game locally.

"One day, we might have to have 12 teams instead of eight,” he said. "That's a dream, but I wish one day we can do that.”

NOTES: Awards were handed out prior to the final games at the tournament banquet Saturday night. They are as follows:

Co-ed male MVP: Eric Murphy. Co-ed female MVP: Cindy Eriksen. Over-35 MVP: David Troup. Top keeper: Geoff Woodhouse. Sportmanship award: Tony Gaw. Boobie award: Patrick Jackson.

This year's tournament marked the first time the year-end tournament has been linked with a sponsor, Laferriere explained.

In prior years, the tournament was simply known as the Whitehorse Rapids end-of-year championship.