She scored the golden goal on Tuesday and the Maggie Mustangs’ final tally of the AA Okanagan Valley soccer season Wednesday.
“It was very intense to even get a goal,” said Madison Cook, who helped the Mustangs win a provincial championship in 2014 while in Grade 10. “I’m very proud. I don’t get a lot of goals. I don’t have that confidence sometimes. Today I knew I wanted to at least get one goal. It made me quite happy. It feels good to end my career like that.”
There is no trip to the provincial championship this year for the Mustangs, who won once in three games during the Okanagan Valley Championship at Kings Park. The Mustangs opened the championship with a 2-1 overtime win over the Seaton Sonics and lost 2-0 to the Valleyview Vikings (Kamloops) before bowing 6-1 to the Clarence Fulton Lady Maroons (Vernon). Cayleigh Graham provided all the Maroons offence.
“It was quite exhausting. We put so much yesterday into our games that waking up this morning, no amount of sleep could have prepared you,” said Cook. “We worked our butts off. I think it’s going to turn out that we’re all really happy with the end game.”
With the Mustangs missing key players, coach John Buckley leaned on younger players to step up. Buckley said his team competed hard against a veteran Maroons squad that pressured them.
“It’s good for them developing and going forward,” said Buckley. “It’s kind of disappointing for those older players.”
Buckley said his group tried to play an offside trap against the Maroons, who caught them a few times on mistakes.
“They were really good. Their girls are really hard to get in a tackle,” said Cook. “It was a very intense, physical game.”
Vanessa Edis and Bleranda Vrenzi, both playing in their first Valley Championship for the Mustangs, enjoyed the playoff experience.
“It was fun to see the different competing levels of the high school soccer. See the different things you have to do,” said Edis. “It was a lot more aggressive. The tactics were basically the same. A lot of the girls were bigger and stronger.”
“It was a lot of fun,” said Vrenzi. “We still tried to work as a team. It was quite a challenge.”
Graduating player Lexi Grady said the tournament was good for the team. They had to work extra hard and she said that showed against the Maroons.
“Everyone was getting tired out,” she said. “We still continued to push through to the end.”
Okanagan Mission won the championship 3-0 over Valleyview.
