Thursday night the men’s soccer team played host to the Montana State University Billings. The visitors came in as the second-best team in the GNAC, as well as the highest-scoring team, with 31 goals in 13 games played. After a very slow and boring first half, a moment of brilliance in the second from Michael North gave the Clan a 1–0 lead. After a red card minutes later, SFU had to hold on with 10 men for nearly half an hour.

“It was a battle,” said Head Coach Clint Schneider after the match. “We got a red card, which was deserved, to be frank. [. . .] I’m glad we got the result tonight. I don’t think we gave them a whole lot to look at in front of the goal, and Michael North scored a wonder [goal].

“We’re moving forward,” Schneider continued. “Another shutout at home, that’s first class from the guys. We just have to keep it going.”

The first half did not feature that much action, to put it lightly. It was the type of first half that feeds the stereotype that soccer is a boring sport. Neither team was able to string any passes together, and the vast majority of the time was spent kicking the ball down the field. Montana State did a great job of forcing the SFU wingers to the inside, where they were promptly met by a swarm of players. 

The second half made up for the first half though. In the 57th minute, Michael North cut inside from the left wing and shot an absolute bullet into the top right corner. That goal proved to be crucial, as a few minutes later James Fraser got a straight red card. A dangerous studs up challenge right into the opposing goalie meant he was sent off, and the Clan had to defend the next 30 odd minutes a man down. After some close moments near the end, they held on for a 1–0 win.

The story by the end of the game was North’s goal, a flash of magic that broke the game open. “Sometimes you need a little bit of magic. They all knew he was going to his left foot, didn’t matter. What a finish,” exclaimed coach Schneider.

With the team still battling down a man, can they build off this success in the rest of the season? “Our guys are realising that they can win games gritty,” said Schneider. “It was a gritty result [tonight]. It’s hard to play good football when you’re down a man, [but] we still made it difficult for them.

“In every regard, I’m very proud of them.”

On Sunday Oct. 18, the Highland Trials took place at Terry Fox Field. The event was an all-BC affair, with British Columbia Quidditch Club (BCQC), SFU Quidditch, University of Victoria Valkyries, and Vancouver Vipertooths all participating. It was the first tournament hosted by the SFU Quidditch team. Quite the achievement considering a few years ago, the team did not even exist.

Despite the rain and a few hiccups, it was a successful tournament for SFU, showing how much the rec club has grown since beginning in fall 2013.

Philomena Chenne is the vice-president of SFU Quidditch, and was also in charge of organizing the Highland Trials. She said that all the experience the team has soaked in going to other tournaments signaled that the team was ready to host their own.

“Having three years [of] cumulative experience now of going to tournaments and seeing how other veteran players have hosted, just seeing how their tactics and scheduling” has been hugely valuable according to Chenne. “Just seeing how your veterans and team can commit to it.”

Once the team decided to host, Chenne had to put in the hours making sure that all the details were taken care of. That included booking the field, getting permission from SFU Rec, bringing in teams to play, making the schedule, and organizing all the volunteers for the tournament.

The volunteers make up a large part of it, as a Quidditch game will have four different types of volunteer referees (a head ref, an assistant ref, and goal judge, and a snitch ref), as well as scorekeepers and timekeepers.

Speaking of the snitch, that is another volunteer position which has to be filled — this is muggle Quidditch, after all. There isn’t any flying golden object, which means that the snitch is filled by someone running around the field trying to avoid a team’s seekers, whose goal is to take a socked tennis ball from the snitch’s pants.

Talor Mykle-Winkler is the president of SFU Quidditch. She said that the club probably wasn’t ready to put on a tournament before now, but believes that playing host won’t be a one-time thing.

“Definitely we will be trying to [host again], whether it be next semester or next year,” Mykle-Winkler said. “There’s so much that goes into the behind-the-scenes, the set up and take down, making sure that teams show up and volunteers because there are a lot of those that are needed.” 

“It’s a lot more fun hosting; you don’t have to drive as far.”

With all the successes of hosting a tournament, it was a bit of a hiccup to end, as SFU was set to face Vancouver Vipertooths in the finals. However, several of the Vipertooths had to leave early, and appeared not to have enough players to play the final match.

SFU decided to lend Vancouver some of its players and turn the final into a friendly, which the hybrid Vancouver-SFU team won by a final score of 100–30.

    Chenne said that despite how the day ended, it was very encouraging for the club to see the players come out and compete hard in the hopefully inaugural tournament on Burnaby Mountain. From here, the team will start focusing on their next tournament — the Rocky Mountain Rumble taking place in Kelowna next month.

At the halfway point of the GNAC season, the Clan traveled down to take on the Hardrockers from South Dakota School of Mine and Technology (SDSMT), who are currently in second place for the GNAC title. A tough Hardrocker defense would pitch a 19–0 shutout against a Clan offense that put up four passing touchdowns in the previousmatchup against the visiting Dixie State.

SFU opened up the game on offense, but were quickly forced to punt the ball to SDSMT who would put up three points on an 86 yard drive that featured six first downs and lasted eight  minutes. Cornerback Robin Weathersby and Safety Jordan Pugh both tackled receiver Daniel Ziegler to end the drive on third and goal, forcing the Hardrockers to settle for a field goal.

On the next Hardrocker drive, Weathersby would make another big play by recovering a fumble at 50-yard line, but a quick three and out forced the Clan to give the ball right back to start the second quarter. The Hardrockers bounced back by putting together a quick 80-yard drive that was capped off by a 35-yard touchdown run from quarterback Trent McKinney.

Shorty after, the Clan defences found themselves once again with their heels against their own end zone. Jordan Pugh stepped up to make a big play by forcing a fumble at the goal line. Linebacker Jordan Herdman would recover the football and give the Clan offense a chance to score before half time.

Quarterback Ryan Stanford put together a couple of first downs, including a 29-yard pass to SFU’s leader receiver for the season, Justin Buren, but inconsistent play forced the Clan to one again call upon kicker Nikolai Karpun to punt to ball away.

“We did enough defensively to put us in a position to win but unfortunately our offense was unable to make any big plays,” said coach Bates told SFU Athletics after the game.

With only a 1:09 left to play in the first half, the Hardrockers were able to assemble yet another long drive that ended with a 19 yard touchdown pass from McKinney to wide receiver Kevin Mills.

After giving up 16 points in the first half, the SFU defense buckled down and held the Hardrockers to a single field goal in the second half to give the offense a chance to win the game for the team.

Running back Ante Milanovic-Litre has stepped up in recent weeks to become the feature back for the Clan, after replacing the injured Josh Hayden. Ante was held to only 31 rushing yards in the first half, however, adjustments in second half play calling pushed him to finish the game with a career-high 125 yards on 21 carries.

In an SFU Athletics summary, Coach Bates acknowledged Ante’s performance by stating that, “Offensively today our running game was able to establish itself [. . .]” however, he also pointed out that, “[. . .] we really struggled at the QB position and were unable to establish consistency.”

Quarterback Ryan Stanford finished the game completing 13 of 28 passes for 121 yards and an interception, while Justin Buren led the Clan in receiving with five receptions and 84 yards. Brothers Jordan and Justin Herdman led the Clan in total tackles with 19 and 11, respectively. Jake Oram and Ben Minaker also finished up with 10 tackles each.

The Clan’s next game will be against Humbolt State on the road in Arcata, California. The game starts at 1 pm.