With all of the medals awarded Sunday at the McDonald's Cross-Field Soccer Championships none could be more special than the third place finish in the U-9 division.

Winning the bronze medal was a golden moment for the kids on Yellow Truck Excavating and one that won't be forgotten any time soon by the players, coaches or parents, who were associated with the team.

"I am so proud of them," said Yellow Truck Excavating's coach, Doug Harris. "I can't even put it into words; I just have a smile on my face. I don't think it will go for a couple of weeks and it's all because I am happy that they got a win."

What made Yellow Truck Excavating's third place finish so meaningful was the fact that they concluded the regular season without winning any games. Although the team finished with a record of zero wins, nine losses and three ties, players on Yellow Truck Excavating never lost faith and, more importantly, never stopped having fun out on the field.

This enjoyment of the game helped each player improve throughout the course of the season. It also made things a lot easier on both Harris and the team's other coach, Marguerite Kuiack, with finding each players comfort levels in the sport, during the weeks leading up to the championships.

Realizing the strengths of their players comfort levels paid off immediately at the tournament, which proved to be a fresh start for the group. Right from their opening game they were out to take more than a few people and teams by surprise.

Yellow Truck Excavating's first game was against the Yukon News and after falling behind by a goal, the team was able to fight back mid-way through the second half to tie it up. The game ended in a 2-2 draw.

The second game against Underhill Geomatics was one of the tournament highlights for Yellow Truck Excavating and offered proof that hard work as well as a positive attitude can make a world of difference.

With only eight minutes remaining on the ticker, the team found themselves trailing 3-0. Yellow Truck Excavating didn't give up though and, incredibly, fought their way back into the game.

The push started with a timely goal by Ashley Harris, which sparked the whole team and just a few minutes later they were able to cut the deficit to 3-2.

The team kept the pressure on and notched two more goals to take their first lead of the contest.

In the final two minutes of the game, Underhill came on strong, forcing Yellow Truck Excavating goaltender Matthias Clyde-Lien to make three key saves to ensure the win.

The victory in game two was not only a turning point during the championships for Clyde-Lien, who discovered his natural talent for playing in net, but for the whole group as well. It was also special for the coach, who said one of his goals from midway through the season was to win a game.

Game three was against the Dawson City Lions, who were one of the strongest teams at the competition and would eventually go on to win the gold medal. Despite out chancing Dawson City, Yellow Truck Excavating ended up dropping the game by the close score of 1-0.

The team's final game of round robin play was a must-win in order to qualify for the semi finals.

After falling behind by 1-0 at the end of the first half, Yellow Truck Excavating spent the majority of the second end attempting to tie it up.

Once again the team's persistence paid off and Yellow Truck Excavating notched the tying goal late in the game. Then with just a couple minutes remaining, they scored the go ahead goal to get the win.

Doug said trailing by a goal in the final round robin contest wasn't discouraging for his players.

"It just kept being one inspirational thing after the other," he said. "It was quite incredible; it was just totally inspirational to see what these kids did this weekend."

The victory helped Yellow Truck Excavating lock down second place in its pool, which qualified them for a semi final matchup against Vector Research. Vector Research was one of the tournament favourites and hadn't lost all season in the U-9 Soccer League.

It was a closely fought battle between the two teams, which even after extra time was still deadlocked at 0-0. The game needed penalty kicks to decide a winner. In penalty kicks, Vector Research was able to capitalize on its opportunities and won by a score of 2-0, resulting in Yellow Truck Excavating playing in the bronze medal final.

Before the bronze medal game, Doug had a team discussion about not thinking about the medal during the game and just continuing to do some of the little things that enabled them to be so successful throughout the championships. Some of those aspects involved the team's great work with throw-ins, corner kicks and helping out on defence. Players on the team also became more consistent in their overall positioning.

The bronze medal final was against Impact Well Drilling, who had beaten Yellow Truck Excavating 7-0 in the second last game of the season.

The battle for bronze between the two teams was a lot closer than their regular season game.

Yellow Truck established a 1-0 lead, before Impact Well Drilling tied it up with about five minutes left in the game. In typical fashion, the kids on Yellow Truck didn't buckle under the pressure or get down about giving up the lead. The team kept up the pressure and scored with an incredible 30 seconds remaining in the game to claim the bronze medal.

Mathew Cooper scored the game winning goal, but Doug said every single player on the team contributed in some way or another to the overall victory.

"We got through the whole tournament on just a total team effort," he said.

"Everybody just did their thing on our team. Whatever their role was, they just did it so well."

For inspiration, Yellow Truck Excavating brought a giant yellow dump truck, which was parked by the F.H. Collins Secondary School field. All of the kids on the team took turns honking the horn in celebration.

During the medal presentation, Yukon Soccer Association president Brian Gillen joked about Yellow Truck Excavating having the "biggest mascot" in tournament history.

Doug, who also has 15 years of coaching experience in hockey, said his involvement with the Yellow Truck Excavating team ranks in the top three best moments for him as a coach.

"It was neat to just get the bronze medal, just looking at how they had gone through the year without winning," he said.

"Every parent and every kid was just so excited to just actually get it because we were so close as it turned out of getting into the gold medal game. To have nothing maybe would have been a little bit disappointing for a little while, until they sat back and thought how well we had done. They deserved to get something. It was the perfect ending."

Kataya Ulrich, eight, played for Yellow Truck Excavating this season. Ulrich had a great tournament and her highlights included nearly winning the game against Vector Research for the team with two scoring chances that came late in the game.

She said winning the bronze medal was really exciting.

"It was kind of a surprise and I have only won one medal before," she said. "We never knew that we were going to win. It was really exciting."

Ulrich said the bronze medal is the best thing she has ever won in the sport and means more to her than the participation medal she won in 2006. She said the best part of the tournament was honking the horn after the victory.

Ulrich said that not winning any games during regular season play made the bronze medal victory more special and she hopes that the 2009 season is as much fun.