Red Deer Polytechnic has announced its RDP Athletes of the Week:
1. Quinn Daku
Hometown: Prince George, BC
Open Studies (2nd year)
After a breakout performance in her fifth game for Red Deer Polytechnic, defender Quinn Daku has been named the Queens Athlete of the Week. In her Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) rookie season, she played for the Northwestern Polytechnic Wolves in Grande Prairie where she started a total of three matches but did not register an assist or goal in the 2021/2022 campaign.
But that sure changed in a jury as she would score not one but two goals against the Ambrose University Lions to help the Queens to a 5-0 shutout victory. She was named the player of the game for her performance on Saturday afternoon.
What made this performance even more impressive was the fact that she came on as a substitution late in the first half and still managed to score twice.
Head Coach Mahziar Peyrow was extremely impressed with her game off the bench.
“Quinn was a transfer from Grande Prairie that I gambled on when adding her to the roster this past off-season. She really showed us another gear on Saturday. I was impressed with her pace of play as well as the way she drove into the box.”
With these two tallies, she now has five points on the year after picking up her first point in the ACAC in the 5-0 shutout victory against the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings a week ago.
Daku and the Queens will have two games on the schedule this week starting off with a Central Alberta match-up as they welcome the Olds College Broncos on Saturday at 12 pm. The Queens will then head off to Camrose to take on the Vikings on Sunday in their last head-to-head of the season.
2. Grant Johnson
Hometown: Red Deer, AB
Legal Assistant (2nd year)
After a multi-point game in an extremely crucial match against the Ambrose University Lions, striker Grant Johnson is this weeks Kings Athlete of the Week.
In the team’s first three games of the season, he only had seven shots on net without registering a point. But Johnson put his team on his shoulder this past weekend as he picked up the assist on the opening goal of the game and added two goals which included the game-winner in the 85th minute.
With this goal, the Kings would pick up their first victory of the season with a 4-3 final against the Lions. This win kept them in the playoff picture as the team was sitting without a win in their first three matches.
Johnson’s game-winning goal came five minutes after the Lions scored their third consecutive goal to tie it up at 3 in the late stages of the match.
It was not an easy win, to say the least. The Polytechnic started the match well scoring three straight goals. But after a Lions goal that was scored from their own half-circle, seconds after the Kings made it 3-0,
Ambrose University made it a much closer match as they would score two more to tie it up in the 80th minute.
Five minutes, midfielder Ajdin Sarcevic would send the Legal Assistant student-athlete off to the races which is where Johnson put the nail in the coffin and scored his second goal of the game to help his team to a 4-3 win.
He was later named the Kings player of the match with two goals and one assist.
The Kings will be back in action this Saturday as they take on the Olds College Broncos at home with a kick-off after 2 pm which happens to be their only game this weekend.
