Broken bones and other assorted injuries couldn't knock the D.P. Todd Trojans off stride at provincials.
At the double-A boys high school soccer championship, Monday to Wednesday in Burnaby, the Trojans ran to a 2-2-1 record and finished 10th out of 16 teams -- a great result considering the quality of a mostly-southern field.
At the same event last year, the Trojans were dead last.
This time around, the D.P. Todd squad was on the limp before it even left Prince George, as top goalscorer Jordan Mior was sidelined with a broken leg and key midfielder Manny Dhemi was unavailable because of a torn medial collateral ligament. To make matters even more difficult, central defender Raman Bhangu couldn't play because of a sprained ankle and winger Tanner Williams had to miss the tournament for personal reasons.
Mior, Dhemi, Bhangu and Williams are all in their Grade 12 years.
As if these absences weren't enough, Grade 12 defender Lucas Ens broke a small bone in his foot in the early stages of provincials and played the rest of the time in pain.
"The boys had an awesome week -- they played really hard," said Matt Jubinville, who co-coaches the Trojans with Matt Couto. "Unfortunately we didn't have the depth on our bench. We only went down with 14 guys due to injuries and that didn't help. But the boys played great and I was really proud of them. They just played their defensive system really well, they worked hard and they didn't give up on much."
The Trojans, north central zone champions, started provincials with a 1-1 draw against Aldergrove and then beat Hugh Boyd of Richmond 1-0. On Tuesday, they dropped a 2-0 decision to eventual-champion St. Thomas Aquinas of North Vancouver and downed L.V. Rogers of Nelson 2-0. On Wednesday, an exhausted D.P. Todd team finished the tournament with a 3-0 loss to Carihi of Campbell River.
With so many holes in the Trojans' lineup, the remaining guys were forced to elevate their play and two of the most successful in this regard were Grade 12 defender/midfielder Sean Gaiesky and Grade 11 striker Anthony Mijatovic.
"Sean is a great leader for the kids and he's also a great soccer player," Jubinville said. "He's so calm and cool with the ball. He knows when to pass it and when he can go with it.
"And Anthony ended up playing our lone striker position and he was in a tough position at a lot of points because we were playing such a defensive system due to the players we were missing. At times he didn't have much help up front but he did a great job."
In Wednesday's provincial final, St. Thomas Aquinas edged Okanagan Mission of Kelowna 1-0 in a shootout.
The PGSS Polars are representing the north central zone at the triple-A boys soccer provincials, which kicked off Thursday in Burnaby. PGSS began the tournament with a 7-0 loss to Oak Bay of Victoria.
