The key to any success the Surrey Christian Falcons might have at this week’s B.C. Senior AA girls high school soccer tournament is to just have fun.
The third place team at the recent Fraser Valley tournament, the Falcons seem to do their best when they are relaxed, and playing with confidence.
“I think our team plays its best when we just play for each other, when we trust each other and enjoy ourselves,” said Surrey Christian coach David Miedema. “A key to success for us seems to be that enjoying the game leads to us playing a good game, and if you play a good game you have a chance to win it.”
The Falcons closed out the Fraser Valley tournament with a 3-2 win over the Archbishop Carney Stars, the host team for this year’s provincial tournament in Burnaby which began today (Thursday).
Trailing 2-0 at half time, Surrey Christian scored a pair of late goals to force overtime.
Kim De Jager netted the Falcons first goal with six minutes to play, then Vanessa Wiebe tied the contest with a penalty shot three minutes later.
Megan Leite notched the winning goal in the shootout, after netminder Amy Van Ryk stopped three of six Stars attempts.
“Carney has some fast forwards and we didn’t seem to be able to contain them,” said Miedema. “We knew that we had already qualified for provincials, so at the half we just decided to enjoy the beautiful day and play for each other.
We settled down, relaxed and started to play as a team. Once we did that we were able to start connecting on our passes, started to control the flow of the game a lot more and were able to play really strong team defence.”
The Burnsview Griffins are also at the tournament, having won the Fraser Valley tournament. The North Delta school is the defending champion.
Undefeated in nine league and playoff games while outscoring the opposition 40-3, Burnsview stopped Pitt Meadows 1-0 in the Fraser Valley championship game. Elexis Schlossarek got the goal, with Julie Devriendt and Michelle Wessa playing outstanding games in the midfield.
– Two Surrey schools are at the Senior AAA tournament in Kamloops, which also began today and wraps up with the championship and placing games Saturday.
The Panorama Ridge Thunder placed second at the Fraser Valley tournament, winning three of four games. They lost 2-0 to the South Delta Sun Devils in the championship game.
Panorama Ridge is the second seed in their four-team group for round robin play. The Point Grey Greyhounds, South Kamloops Titans and the Sardis Falcons are the other teams in the group. The Thunder edged Sardis 2-1 in a Fraser Valley playoff game.
The Princess Margaret Lions also won three of their first four games, and placed sixth in the Fraser Valley after dropping their final two contests. The Panthers were seeded fourth for the Fraser Valley tournament, two spots higher than the Thunder.
The Lions are grouped with South Delta, the Sentinel Spartans and Kitsilano Blue Demons for round robin play.
