Soccer was the territory's number one sport this past weekend as more than 500 kids and youth competed in this year's indoor championships.

The 2009 Northwestel Indoor Soccer Championships began Friday and concluded Sunday.

This was the 20th year the indoor tournament has been put on. The championships are presented by the Yukon Soccer Association.

Teams competed in six separate divisions, including U-7, U-9, U-11, U-13, U-15 and U-18. A total of 118 games were played, using a variety of venues such as Yukon College, F.H. Collins Secondary School, Vanier Catholic Secondary School and the Canada Games Centre.

All of the gold medal games and presentations were held at the Canada Games Centre.

The tournament featured a total of 55 teams, including 14 from outside of Whitehorse. Dawson had the most among the communities, with eight teams in total, while Atlin and Mayo each sent two.

Atlin and Pelly Crossing had one. Whitehorse had a total of 41.

The results:

In what was a very exciting U-7 final, Jacob's Industries edged out Mikes Tub and Shower 2-1.

The U-7 bronze medal game between Pelly Crossing and Pacific Northwest Moving wasn't quite as close. When all was said and done, Pelly Construction ended up winning 7-2.

The excitement generated by some of the games in this division, in particular the final, was almost too much for some parents to watch.

The U-9 division's final was without a doubt one of the most exciting games of the entire weekend. The match was between Kilrich Industries and Vector Research, ending 3-3 at the end of regular time.

After Vector Research scored a quick goal at the beginning of extra time, Kilrich was once again able to tie it up, netting a goal in the final four seconds to force a shootout.

In dramatic fashion, Kilrich's goalie Max Zaparinuk ended the shootout, netting a goal and then following it up by making a save.

"I have never seen that before, that's pretty neat," said Tony Gaw, the head coach for Kilrich Industries, about Zaparinuk scoring and then making a save to win the shootout.

The shootout required 22 shots and even attracted the attention of runners on the Games Centre's upper track.

"The only advice I gave them was try to hit the net and if it goes in great," Gaw said.

"And same for the goalie, just stand there and try to make yourself as big as possible and our goalie is probably the smallest kid on our team, so it was pretty good. Both goalies made some really good saves."

The U-9 division was very tight with only one or two goals deciding each game.

Gaw said he tried not to have any expectations heading into this year's tournament.

"It worked out really well," he said. "One of the best things was in the semi-finals our team got to play my brother's team from Dawson. So that was fun my daughter (Georgia) got to play against her cousin (Ethan)."

Dawson City's Gammie Trucking ended up winning the bronze medal, defeating Fountain Tire 5-4 in overtime.

In U-11 division, 15 teams squared off, with Property Guys.com defeating Coates Services 5-0 in the final, while Underhill Geomatics claimed the bronze medal, downing Dirkbuilt 5-3 in the battle for third place.

The U-13 title was taken by Pristine Auto Care, who defeated Amboca 8-4.

Meanwhile, Better Bodies finished third after beating The Deli 5-1.

After giving up a 3-1 lead, Locksmith Services was able to get a late goal to beat Woodhouse Business Consulting. 4-3 in the U-15 gold medal game.

In the U-18 category, Dawson City's Mackenzie Petroleum took gold as Whitehorse could not produce any teams.

However, a series of three exhibition matches were arranged for the Dawson youth against some Whitehorse players and some rep team players.

Dawson won the series two games to one.

"It was just a great weekend for competitive soccer for the territory," said Johnny Nunan, president of the Yukon Soccer Association. "A part of what Yukon Soccer is about is creating these really positive experiences for kids and I think we delivered that in spades."

Nunan said one his future goals for the tournament is to have all the communities participate in the annual tournament.

"I mean Watson Lake we want to get them up here, Ross River, I would love to see a team from Old Crow," he said. "I would fall down if a team from Old Crow showed up next year and I would just love to have all of the communities represented. That's my goal, one day."