Kings and Rustlers play to a draw

Brent Forster - RDC

The Red Deer College Kings were pleased with their effort last weekend as they split their series against the Broncos and a tough Trojans team. The young RDC squad was looking for that to carry over Saturday afternoon against the Lakeland College Rustlers at the RDC Field. While the Kings pushed the pace, neither team could score and they settled for a 0-0 draw. 

Talon Grenier was the starting goalkeeper for the Kings and gave RDC a chance to win. Despite the Kings controlling more of the play in the opening 45 minutes, neither team could score.

In the 2nd half, the RDC Kings continued to apply pressure. The Kings came close to getting on the board but hit the right side of the crossbar and sent a few shots just wide. Time expired and both teams earned 1 point in the standings. 

Kings Soccer Head Coach Wade Groenewegen sees improvement and remains positive. "We beat the Rustlers in every way but the score. We can't be disappointed with the effort and performance but we are not going to win any games if we don't stick the ball in the net. The good news is that we negated a couple of pretty good wingers that tore us apart last year," said Groenewegen. "We didn't really give them anything today so that's all good news. We are improving and are on the way up. We are playing well enough to win." 

Kyle Bett was chosen as the Kings player-of-the-game and the Open Studies student from Calgary had a few good opportunities. "Aside from Kyle being the closest to bulging the twine, he had two incredible strikes from outside. He is the one that settles us down in the back," said Groenewegen. "We play through him most of the way - him and Theo. Kyle is highly mobile and plays bigger than he is. He gets tackles that you don't think that he would get."

One of the Kings' leaders, Theoren Gill, liked the ball movement but thinks that scoring is still an area to focus on. "We kept possession well and moved the ball around. We did pretty much what we've been practicing in training and we have to be hungrier to stick the ball in the net," said Gill. "We are playing exactly how we know we can coming out of the back but it's hard to get W's if we can't stick it in the net. If we sharpen up on that, we have a shot of making the playoffs."  

Gill is enjoying the team atmosphere and thinks that the positive culture will serve the team well now and in the future. "I've never played on such a close team in my life," said Gill. "We do everything together, get along well and that will help us in the years to come."

The RDC Kings (1-3-1) sit in 5th spot in the ACAC Men's Soccer South Division and will play the 1st place SAIT Trojans (3-0-1) on Saturday, Sept. 30 in Calgary.