{"id":38263,"date":"2017-10-14T09:55:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T15:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=38263"},"modified":"2021-02-11T23:09:33","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T06:09:33","slug":"trojans-mens-soccer-team-goes-into-new-season-hot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2017\/10\/14\/trojans-mens-soccer-team-goes-into-new-season-hot\/","title":{"rendered":"Trojans men’s soccer team goes into new season hot"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span>n a week filled with high-intensity practices, the SAIT Trojans men\u2019s soccer team trained with pace and purpose that they carried into a highly anticipated two-game road trip to start their season.<\/p>\n

A<\/span>ll the hard work proved beneficial as the Trojans arrived back in Calgary with a perfect three wins in three matches to start the 2017 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weekend sets the tone for the rest of the season,\u201d stated head coach Grant Stevens, in a media release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I like is that these back-to-back road trip games gives our players the psychological preparation they will need if we go to the conference championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what the Trojans have their sights set on this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to finish at the top of our league, and it\u2019s a realistic goal,\u201d said midfielder Jake Walmsley, a fourth-year veteran of the Trojans.<\/p>\n

The Trojans started the road trip against Lakeland College on Saturday, Sept. 16, and put their offense on display with a 6-0 victory.<\/p>\n

They wrapped up the weekend with a tidy 2-0 win over Red Deer College on Sunday, Sept. 17, which secured them in top position, with nine points, in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference<\/a> (ACAC), while only conceding one goal over those three games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team looks really strong, and just as strong as the other teams I\u2019ve played on,\u201d Walmsley added.<\/p>\n

With a 3-1 win in their first match on Saturday, Sept. 9, the team knew there was still work to be done, but that first victory was exactly what the team needed to start off the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were tied at half time, and we were a bit down on ourselves, but we came out after, adjusted, turned it around and got two nice goals,\u201d said Walmsley,<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the second half we never felt like we were going to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trojans\u2019 first week filled with hard work and preparation foreshadowed the results produced on the weekend\u2019s road trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to set a statement, and I think the statement was that we are really intense on the field, and some teams won\u2019t like our intensity, but that\u2019s how we\u2019re going to play,\u201d Walmsley stated.<\/p>\n

Walmsley, who scored the second goal for the Trojans on Sunday in Red Deer, knows he and the other veteran players have leadership duties as the Trojans welcomed nine first-year players to their roster this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to make sure they\u2019re on top of their game during practice, and then include them outside of practice and make sure they feel like part of the team,\u201d he said,<\/p>\n

\u201cYou also have to give them their fair share of hassle and rookie responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we\u2019ll have to earn our role,\u201d said first-year player Dean Northover, who scored the Trojans\u2019 first goal of the season in their opener versus Olds College, and added another tally at Lakeland College.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good to get the jitters out in that first game of the year,”\u00a0Northover said,<\/p>\n

“I feel a lot more comfortable now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe seem to be coming together pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our goal is to finish at the top of our league, and it\u2019s a realistic goal.- Jake Walmsley<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve all been really nice and really taken us [first-year players] in,\u201d Northover said, who played for coach Stevens as a teen-ager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a week filled with high-intensity practices, the SAIT Trojans men\u2019s soccer team trained with pace and purpose that they carried into a highly anticipated two-game road trip on the weekend. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":38264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Kick the ball, guys","footnotes":""},"categories":[1581,25,17],"tags":[507,1003,589],"class_list":{"0":"post-38263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sait-trojans","8":"category-sait-trojans-soccer","9":"category-sports","10":"tag-sait-trojans","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-trojans","13":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38263"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39498,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263\/revisions\/39498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}