The Elks boys U-15 C-2 soccer team participated in the Burnsville Fire tournament over the weekend and came home with the second place hardware.

Each bracket was a round robin event consisting of four teams from its own level of play with the winner determined by points awarded for wins, goals and shutouts.

The three other teams in the U-15 C-2 bracket were Burnsville, Prior Lake and St. Paul. Before the start of play, the St. Paul Blackhawk team was touted as the team to take first place.

Albert Lea faced a very determined Burnsville team and lost 4-1 in the opener. The boys came out strong with Jairo Campos scoring within the first 10 minutes with assists going to Cody Knudsen and Andy Harte. It appeared as though the AL boys were going to blow away Burnsville. The score remained at 1-0 until the second half but then Burnsville scored four unanswered goals.

Prior Lake was the second opponent of the tourney. The boys came out flat and at the end of the first half, the game was tied 1-1, but AL suddenly woke up and totally dominated the second half.

Felipe Ambriz led the scoring with two goals followed by one from Adam Clark and Campos. Harte scored his on a free direct kick from the 25-yard mark. Assists were awarded to Levi Herrera, Jared Jensen, Lars Gjersvik, Oscar Hernandez, Nate Harris, Cory Doyle, Marco Rodriquez and Harte.

The last game against the St. Paul Blackhawks the boys were determined to show they are as good or better than the praised Blackhawk team.

The Blackhawks controlled the first four minutes until Albert Lea figured out it could play with this team if Adam Kermes and Gjersvik could shut down their target player.

The boys scored at about the 10-minute mark and added two more before half time. The Blackhawks were fired up and came out and scored within the first two minutes of the second half. Albert Lea was in a fight to survive but was able to turn the game around by trapping the Blackhawks offside several times in the second half.

The Blackhawks’ goalie turned away several attempts in the second half and the game ended with the 3-1 win for the AL boys.

Campos scored two goals and Clark tallied one with assists to Chris Karge, Herrera, Campos, Jensen, Ambriz and Hernandez.

Jordan DeVries played in net all three games. Other members of the team were Andre Reyes, Matt Tiegs and Lucas Dang.

The team missed two key players the first two games with Tiegs and Kermes attending wrestling camp.

Burnsville finished with 22 points and Albert Lea ended with 19 points for second place. The Burnsville team was awarded a forfeit win against the Blackhawk team on the “no pass, no play” rule because one of the officials lost or misplaced all of Blackhawk player passes.

Next up for Albert Lea will be district playoffs, July 15 weekend in Burnsville and it appears the locals will face Burnsville in their first game. The team’s record goes to 7-3 on the year.