The Yukon junior girls soccer team took home the gold ulu on Saturday with a 5-1 victory over Greenland.

The Yukon girls played for a packed house of nearly 300 in their final match of the Arctic Winter Games, drawing an international crowd of fans filling the stands and upper track of the Canada Games Centre indoor soccer field.

The Yukoners broke out with three goals in a high-energy first half of play.

"We wanted to start off strong and get a whole bunch of goals in the first half if possible, and then try to stay defensive throughout,” said Jaylene Kelly, a captain for the Yukon team.

The Greenland girls picked up in the second but were unable to overcome the lead set by the local team.

Four of the five Yukon goals were scored by Camille Galloway, who dominated scoring in the first half, with three consecutive points early in the match and another in the second half.

Megan Lanigan, the team's other captain scored the final goal of the game.

Lanigan praised Greenland and the rest of the teams for brining strong competition to the event.

"It was really fun to see how they played soccer and everything, and it was really equal, everyone did a really great job from everywhere,” she said.

Charly Kelly, coach of team Yukon lamented the loss of two top regional teams in this year's competition.

"I know coming into it we were a little disappointed that Northern Alberta didn't put a team into our age category and that Alaska dropped out at the last minute because we were ready to meet them, she said. "Greenland was definitely our biggest competition here though, and we were all nervous coming in.”

The girls took extra measures to prepare for the Greenland squad.

"We had the opportunity last night to watch a video tape of the game that we played with Greenland previously and had the opportunity to see how we had our shape, how our shape was coming on the field of play and, you know, today we maintained that shape and played the game we have been playing the whole way through this tournament,” said the coach.

"It was excellent.”

Yukon goalkeeper, Samantha Burgis was a force of her own throughout the game, blocking a series of attempts at goal through by the technically proficient Greenlanders.

The Greenland girls were able to get one goal on the local team however, scored by Oline Kristiansen.

"It was a fumble goal that I let in, which was disappointing,” said Burgis. "But it's no big deal, our team did really good and it was a great match.”

The victory was a long time coming for the Yukon team.

"This team has been together since they were eight years old, so it's been years of just working technically, and working on their fitness,” said Charly Kelly. "It's amazing and for these girls, this is a huge, proud moment.”

Among the crowd attending the match was Bal Gosal, federal minister of sport for the government of Canada.

"Sport is such a great power that unites communities and youth, all throughout the country, it's part of the beauty of Canada. It's part of the beauty of the North,” he said.

Yamal won gold in the junior male division, while Greenland took the gold ulu in the juvenile male category. In the intermediate females, the Sampi girls defeated the Yukon with a score of 2-1 in their Saturday match, with Yukon earning the silver ulu.