The St. Albert Men’s Soccer League (SAMSL) kicked off its 30th season Sunday with a revamped line-up of championship contenders.
SAMSL is down to eight teams this year after going with two divisions with six teams apiece.
“It will be an interesting year,” said Chester City striker Matt Starcheski after a 5-0 win over SA City at Riel Park. “With a few of the championship winning teams leaving the league this year, there are a lot of unknowns with the two divisions being combined.”
The iconic Rummies, winners of an unprecedented 13 playoff cups in 17 straight appearances in the division one final, plus 11 provincial medals, closed shop when turnout was poor for their outdoor training sessions.
Two more division one teams — Summit FC, last year’s champion, and Gainer FC — also disbanded because of internal team issues. Summit threw in the towel after winning their first playoff crown in their third SAMSL season. In last year’s final, Summit shut out the first-place Rummies 4-0.
Borrachos, the 2009 division two pennant winners and playoff champions from Barrhead in their first SAMSL season, also called it quits on the eve of the season opener.
FC Hertha, the last-place division two team, is playing masters.
Returning from last year is Chester, the 2008 champions, St. Albert United and the Decepticons from division one and Strike Force, Arsenal, Crossfire and SA City from division two. A late replacement for the Borrachos was the unknown GSE squad.
“I’m not too sure about some of those teams, but I know these guys [SA City] put in a pretty good effort against us today,” Starcheski said.
SAMSL will play a 14-game schedule, with the top four teams going to provincials: two in tier III and two in tier IV. The league final is Aug. 29.
“Our team’s expectations are still to finish high like we tend to do every year,” Starcheski said.
Chester (5-4-6) placed third behind the Rummies (13-1-1) and Summit (10-3-2) and in the playoffs were eliminated in the round of four.
“Overall it wasn’t too bad,” Starcheski said. “Towards the end of the year we started to gel as a group way better than in the beginning of the year. However, it was kind of a disappointing end to the season with the 3-2 loss to Summit.”
Starcheski, 25, scored both goals against Summit in the playoffs after finishing second in team scoring with eight, one less than veteran Trent Hillman’s output for Chester.
It took Starcheski only 22 minutes to open the scoring against SA City. A nifty cross by Brian van Essen, a former Rummies’ standout and trialist from the St. Albert Impact masters, capped off a three-on-one rush, with Hillman the trailer on the play.
“Brian was coming in around the corner and I was just kind of hanging up high and he crossed the ball to me at about the penalty marker spot. It was just an easy touch in to the goal,” said Starcheski.
The Morinville product started his lengthy career with Chester as their keeper before moving out to forward about three years ago.
“It seems to go not too bad when I play up front,” said the shifty runner with the big kicking boot.
Vinny Segreto, a valuable pickup from the Rummies, kicked in the second goal in the 24th minute. A pinpoint crossfield pass by Ian Gadowsky sailed over top of the diminutive van Essen, who was under wraps outside the middle of the box, to the unmarked Segreto and the lanky forward quickly banged it home.
Ryan Prodorutti, formerly of the Rummies, also scored before halftime. van Essen and Jason Marak rounded out the scoring in a second half dominated by Chester. van Essen and Starcheski had glorious chances to add to their goal count but couldn’t finish from close range. Hillman, another distinguished ex-Rummie with the golden touch, picked up a couple of assists. Colin Andrews, a Bellerose high school player in his second year with Chester, was dangerously quick on the wing. In net was Sean Duffy.
“You can’t go wrong with five goals,” Starcheski said. “We still had a lot of missed opportunities though but it’s not bad for our first kick around so we can’t complain.”
Chester dressed several members from their only championship win in team history. The 3-1 decision over the Rummies two years ago marked the third trip to the division one final in the team’s 14 years in SAMSL.
Twelve players on the 19-man roster are also back from last year.
“For having a few new guys come out it wasn’t a bad effort. It took us a little bit to get into it and get used to how everybody plays but it seemed to come along better as the game was played,” Starcheski said.
CORNER KICKS: League play continues Sunday at Riel Park. At 1 p.m. SA City plays Crossfire and GSE tackles Arsenal. At 3 p.m. Chester tangles with Strike Force and St. Albert United lines up against the Decepticons.
