The Elks U-14 boys’ soccer team ran with &uot;the big dogs&uot; at the state tournament.

It faced three metro teams, who continue to draw players from a much larger pool of talent, and one non-metro team.

There were two brackets of round robin play and the team with the most points advancing to the championship game. The Albert Lea Elks team compiled a record of 1-1-2 which was not sufficient to advance to the championship game. Their only loss was to the eventual champion team from Hopkins.

Hopkins went undefeated throughout the tournament allowing only three goals on its way to the championship, and Albert Lea scored one of those goals.

The boys started out with a 4-2 victory against the other non-metro team from Detroit Lakes.

Tyler Prihoda, Adam Clark, Jairo Campos and Adam Kermes scored for the locals with assists going to Clark, Campos and Felipe Ambriz.

Game two was against a very talented team from Hopkins. Albert Lea scored first within the first two minutes of play, but the goal was denied as the official made a disputed offside call.

Hopkins scored two goals in the first half and one in the second before the A.L. boys could

regroup.

Levi Herrera scored the only goal unassisted from his defensive position before Hopkins would score one more with just minutes remaining.

The next two games were defensive battles against Hastings and Wright County, which resulted in ties at 0-0. Jordan DeVries played in goal the entire four games.

The team consisted of Felipe Ambriz, Jairo Campos, Adam Clark, Lucas Dang, Jordan DeVries, Juan Gonzales, Andy Harte, Oscar Hernandez, Levi Herrera, John Hildreth, Jared Jensen, Adam Kermes, Cody Knudsen, Tyler Priboda, Marco Rodriguez, Grant Stadheim, Matt Tiegs, and Nicholas Tippet. Their coaches praised all for a successful year, which was due to a total team effort.

The boys played a total of 19 games scoring 43 goals and allowing just 20 for the season. They played in one tournament early in the year and then the district and state tournaments.

The boys want to thank the parents with a special thank you to the team moms for the support

for the entire year.