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Clan prepares for soccer playoffs

The CSS Clan soccer team finished up the regular season and is now looking forward to a busy post season.

The Clan wrapped up their regular season earlier this week on a down note, with a loss to Duchess Park. The game was close, with the Condors edging out the clan 1–0 at full time. Despite the fizzle at the end, Robert McGregor, the team's coach, is happy with the team's performance. "It's a good team. We've got a good mix of grade ten, 11 and 12s," he said. Adding that the new grade ten students have stepped up, with a few regularly making the starting line-up. The team finished the regular season with a a 4-1-1 record in the Prince George high school league. A tournament down south, however, wasn't as kind to them, netting them four losses and one win. The tournament, played the last weekend of September down in Kamloops, pitted the Clan against some difficult teams from the lower mainland. In their match against Queen Elizabeth from Surrey, the Clan narrowly lost, with the score sitting at 1 - 0 at full time. North Vancouver's St Thomas Aquinas scored a last minute to ensure a 3 - 1 victory over CSS. The lone bright spot was against Westsyde, from Kamloops, who the Clan beat 1 - 0 in shootout. Their final game, though, they lost to Valleyview, a Kamloops highschool, 2 - 1.   The losses may hurt, but McGregor is quick to point out how close the games were and how far the team has come. "We've been competitive in every game; they've all been close games," he said. Adding later that the team is losing on the back of a mistake the opposition capitalizes on, whereas in the past they would be making six or even seven mistakes which would cost the team. The soccer season, like many sports this year, got off to a rough start, depriving the team of nearly half its season in cancelled tournaments. With league play-offs, zones and provincials ahead there's still a lot of soccer to play before the end. McGregor is optimistic about the coming tournaments, noting that the team has been to the finals for the last two years, though he is a little worried about the chance of snow at provincials, a challenge the team has historically been unable to beat. Playoffs are next week, Oct. ninth to fourteenth, followed by zones, Oct. 27-28 and ending at provincials, coming nearly a month later on Nov. 22-24.