After a one-year absence the St. Albert Impact Rangers are playing to stay in premier for another season.
In the round robin schedule the Rangers finished seventh with three wins, two losses and a startling six ties. The top six teams will challenge for the pennant in the A division. The remaining six teams kick the ball in the B division to determine the four squads that will be relegated into division one next year in the Edmonton District Soccer Association.
“We’re trying to stay out of those bottom four spots,” midfielder Brent Jenkins said Thursday, after the Rangers opened the B fixtures with a 2-1 win over Polonia at Riel Park. “We’re going to fight it out and get five wins if we can.”
The long-time premier team was relegated into division one after the 2008 campaign and was promoted back into premier after placing first overall in division 1A last year.
The Rangers kicked off their return to premier with scores of 3-3, 2-2 and a pair of nil-nil draws. The first win wasn’t until game six, 5-2 against Polonia.
“If it wasn’t for those six ties we feel we would be up in the top three in that top six division,” Jenkins said. “In a lot of the ties we felt like we lost those games. They were games we gave away. I think two out of the first three games we allowed a goal in the last minute or so to allow those ties.”
With 15 points, the Rangers finished ahead of Africana FC (14), Karpaty (12), Roots United (10), Polonia (9) and DFCA (four). Their record against the B teams in the first round was 2-1-2.
“It’s a strange format in the sense that we keep our points [from the round robin] and there are a few teams that are almost mathematically eliminated already,” Jenkins said.
Polonia is on the verge of relegation with seven losses after Emmett Keenan sniped the game winner for the Rangers in the 60th minute.
“It was kind of a scrambled game at times but for the most part when we controlled the game, they couldn’t get by us,” Jenkins said. “We played really well to get the points.”
Early in the match keeper Ryan Austin robbed Polonia of a goal with a sprawling save as the shooter fired the ball from close range. A few minutes later, Joe Almeida put the Rangers ahead with a strike.
The Rangers kept attacking as Keenan came close twice to extending the lead.
At the other end, Austin took a goal away from Polonia in the 31st minute with another wicked stop. In the next minute, a player slipped around Mike Thompson and charged the net when Chris Tersmette bolted in front of Austin to snuff out the scoring chance. Polonia would eventually beat Austin before the half ended.
“It was very back and forth in the first half and obviously the score reflected it,” Jenkins said.
The Rangers dominated the second half but scored only once on a great individual play by Keenan. After his initial shot was blocked by a defender, Keenan reeled in the rebound and faked the keeper out of position before tapping the ball in. His seventh goal tied Mark McQuaid for the team lead.
The Rangers had opportunities galore to score the insurance marker through efforts by Keenan, Almeida, Jenkins, Thompson and ex-football player Cory Jones, but either missed the net or made the Polonia keeper look good.
“It felt like the same game in the second half as the first half with the same flow but there were bursts of times when we controlled the ball with one touch passing and it felt good to play that way,” Jenkins said.
The Rangers didn’t dress a full roster because of injuries, a one-game suspension to McQuaid for too many cards and unavailable players like veteran Jimmy Casper, a mainstay in the backs.
“We had to change things around a little bit just to make up for that defensive presence in the backs,” said Jenkins, 26, one of several Rangers remaining from the 2007 premier pennant winners and tier I provincial bronze medallists.
The Rangers are also trying to come to grips with the death of Dieter Knobloch on June 30 after a 10-year battle with cancer. The team’s founder was a legendary figure in St. Albert soccer.
“It’s strange around the pitch without his presence but we’re going to carry on his legacy and play the way he would want us to play. This season is for him.”
The next game is 7 p.m. Monday against DFCA at Riel Park. In week three the teams played to a scoreless draw.
