Men's Soccer Huskies sweep Wolves, set sights on top spot in division

With their first goal taken care of in securing a spot in the 2025 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men’s Soccer Championship, the Keyano Huskies are now eyeing the top spot in the North Division for a third-straight season.  
 
That vision was made possible by the Huskies second six-point weekend as they dispatched their hosts, the Northwestern Polytechnic Wolves, by scores of 2-1 and 2-0 on the road over the weekend.  

“We were overall pretty solid,” said Head Coach Niels Slotboom. “We definitely dominated both games, but we have to put the ball in the back of the net when the opportunities present itself. The score wasn’t really reflective of the game.  
 
“That’s something that we’ve really got to work because at championships we’re not going to get four, five, six chances to score one goal. It’s something that we’re continually going to focus on and something that this team really needs to improve upon so that we put teams away in a fashion that is suitable for how the whole game goes instead of allowing teams to stick around.”  

Trailing 1-0 at the half Saturday, goals from Stef Vullinghs and Tano Torchia flipped the result in the Huskies favour. Corbin Cyprien made two saves in the win, the 22nd of his ACAC career.  
 
Sunday, the Huskies shut the door on their hosts with a 2-0 result. Torchia collected his second game-winning goal in as many days by opening the scoring in the 45th minute. Mekai James doubled the Huskies’ lead in the second half. Goalkeeper Jaiden McLaren made four saves for his third shutout of the season.  
 
With both Cyprien and McLaren excelling, Slotboom expressed appreciation for the position rotation working the way it has.  
 
“In many ways it’s a benefit to us to share some of the workload,” Slotboom said. “The goalkeeper position can definitely be a punishing position so it’s something that allows us to be fresh and have two guys that we can count upon.  
 
That’s what we’re trying to do is utilize that as a strength of ours to keep our entire formation, including that position, as fresh as possible. We’re hoping that’s going to be beneficial to us.”
 
That sharing of the net has the Huskies on the verge of a first-place finish in the division for the second time in three seasons. Slotboom appreciated the spot his team was in, but still had his sights set on them getting better.  

“We’re locked into a playoff spot with still a chance to lock up top spot in the north, which has always been our goal,” Slotboom said. “We’re trending in the direction that we need to, but there’s definitely a lot of things along the way that we want to improve upon to really get to where this team is capable of getting to.”  
 
The Huskies host the Lakeland Rustlers Saturday and Sunday at SMS Equipment Place for the final home games of the regular season. Kick-off for the Men’s games are scheduled for 3:45pm Saturday and 2:15pm Sunday.