When local soccer coach John MacPhail decided to take the two teams of 12 down to the 2009 PowerPlay Cup in Edmonton earlier this month, he wasn't too sure what to expect from the players.

It was more of an opportunity to get a sense of how the 24 girls play together and help him in his decision about which players will make the Yukon team that will go to the Canada Summer Games in Prince Edward Island.

"I never know what to expect," he said in an interview Monday afternoon.

What the coach ended up taking in was some excellent playing by the Yukoners, with all 24 coming home with medals.

Divided into two teams of 12, the territory's U-18 Girls Tier 2 team came home with a silver medal, while the U-18 Girls Tier 4 team returned with a gold from the event which featured about 300 teams from Alberta.

A round-robin format was used with eight teams in each group the Yukoners were in.

The gold medal winners defeated a Calgary team 4-1 before going on to win another 4-2 match against an Edmonton team prior to the final 3-2 win against another Edmonton team.

It would be a couple of hours before MacPhail and his players would know they won gold though as they waited for word on another game in the tournament.

Medals were awarded on a point system that saw teams get three points for a win, one point for a tie and zero in the case of a loss.

The Tier 4 team eventually learned they took the gold medal by just one point.

In their games, the silver medallists defeated a Grande Prairie team 2-0 and followed that up by a close 3-2 victory against an Edmonton team where they scored their winning goal in the final 30 seconds of the game. It was in the next match they lost 4-1.

"They were disappointed," MacPhail told the Star.

As they later learned, the team they were playing was stacked, bringing in four better players. The team was eventually disqualified, though the Yukoners were still in the position for silver.

As MacPhail pointed out to them though, they should take some solace in the fact the better players had to be put on the team to bring the Yukoners down.

The coach was quick to note the trip to the Feb. 6 - 8 tournament was made to get a better sense of how each of the players would play in an Outside event, with all of them playing very well.

However, he noted Emily Fedoriak, Jamie Whitty and Terri Publicover were particularly impressive on the indoor fields while Atecca Mills did an exceptional job of keeping the ball out of the Yukon's net.

"They were stand-outs," MacPhail said of the four players.

He expects to whittle the Yukon team down a bit in March.

After that, he will spend some time watching the remaining players skills on an outdoor field before selecting the final team before the Games, Aug. 15 to 29.