Ponoka’s U16 Storm continue on their march to advancing to provincials in regular league play with another win and one draw in the course of last week.
In their first game against Lacombe on Tuesday, May 27, the Storm had to stage a comeback in the last 15 minutes of the game to tie the score with Markus Baitinger and Lewis McDowell putting the numbers on the scoreboard.
“We (the coaching staff) felt we dominated this game and we were not worried even when we were down,” said head coach Gurjit Sandhu of the Storm.
“Goalie Justin (Hyink) was sharp but didn’t really stand a chance on the two goals as one was a penalty shot which he got a hand on and the second was a rebound,” he added.
He also praised the opponents’ goalie. “He had a brilliant game making good saves,” he said.
“The boys learned that not putting their chances in the net can come back to haunt them and will be an issue we will deal with in coming practices.”
The game against Stettler FC was a different story.
This time the hosts were relentless in their efforts against the visiting Stettler side. They maintained possession for most of the game and controlled the pace of the play. Scorers were again Markus Baitinger (3) and Lewis MacDowell.
“This was another game where we showed our strength as a team and dominated for 80 minutes,” Sandhu said. “But the last 10 minutes laziness started to creep into the game when we were up 4-0 and Stettler took advantage and scored twice.”
He said the Storm had again failed to convert many opportunities but that Stettler goalie also had a part in it.