Prince George soccer player Johnathan Ardell, of the Royal Military College of Canada Paladins, is the U SPORTS Male Athlete of the Week for the period ending Sept. 9, 2018.
U SPORTS is the national brand for university sports in Canada. Every year, over 14,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 56 universities vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports.
A third-year veteran at RMC, in Kingston, Ontario, Ardell had never seen his team win a game. On the weekend, the Paladins keeper took matters into his own hands; however, helping the Paladins win the first game for the program since 2015. On Saturday against Trent, Ardell made a career-high 10 saves to backstop RMC to their first win of the season. Ardell bested himself on Sunday against a hungry UOIT Ridgebacks team, setting a new career-high with 13 saves and helping the Paladins win back-to-back games for the first time since 2014. After RMC took the lead in the 54th minute, the civil engineering student was a brick wall in goal, turning away the Ridgeback onslaught until the final whistle blew and the Paladins collected all six points from the weekend.
