Nationwide Success

The Suba Lakers had two teams competing in the Kisumu Youth Football Association Nationwide Ladies Tournament over the weekend. Both teams placed third in their age categories, bringing home trophies, medals and prize money. .

The open age team lost their first match to Victoria FC 4-0 after giving up four goals in the second half on a rain soaked field at Kenyatta Sports ground in the opening match of the tournament. They bounced back later that day by thrashing Hatua Molo FC 12-0 with five goals from Dorothy Adhiambo. On Saturday morning they faced a tough task playing against one of the best secondary school teams in the country, Jera. In addition, three of the Suba Lakers were playing for Jera. A back and forth first half did not produce any goals until the last few minutes when Everline Moraa rocketed a shot past the goalkeeper. That was all the Lakers needed as they held on for a 1-0 win. In their final preliminary game, the Lakers scored a late second half goal on a penalty kick to draw with Kasagam 1-1. With 7 points, the Lakers finished 2nd in the pool and qualified for a semifinal encounter with Ibinzo from Western Province. Suba dodged several bullets in the first half and went into halftime 0-0. Unfortunately Ibinzo scored early in the second half and followed it up with 3 more to rout the Lakers 4-0. The Lakers qualified for 3rd place with a walkover. It is the first time the Suba Lakers have been able to finish in the top three in the KYFA Nationwide Tournament.

The Under 15 team dominated their pool, opening with a 4-3 win over Soccer Sisters from Nairobi on two goals by Brenda June and two more by Lucia Awino. They won their second match 3-1 over Kisum Leeds on goals by Theresa Atieno, Brenda June and Winny Akinyi. On the second day they settled for a 5-5 draw with reigning champions Victoria after giving up 2 late goals. In their final group game they defeated Shaurimoyo 4-1. They finished tied at the top of the standing with Victoria but were placed 2nd because they scored 1 less goal than Victoria. In the semis, they faced SEP from Oyugis and started off down 4-0, but recovered with 2 goals in the second half before running out of time to finish their comeback. In the third place playoff on Sunday morning they easily handled TYSA from Kitale 7 to 3 behind 4 goals from Winny Akinyi. A few of the teams brought secondary girls much older than 15, but our 6th and 7th graders competed favourably with all of the teams. It was a good experience for them and they have shown us that the Suba Lakers have a bright future ahead of them.