Unbeaten in the regular season so far, the peewee girls Cowichan Valley Capitals faced their toughest challenge this season when the Tri-Port Wild visited for the team’s Thanksgiving Tournament last weekend.
The Island rivals squared off in the last game of the regular season, won 2-1 by Cowichan, then again in the gold-medal game, with Cowichan prevailing 6-3.
“The two games against Tri-Port have been the strongest competition so far this season,” Cowichan head coach Brad Scafe said. “Especially considering that the Tri-Port team carries six over-age bantam-age girls, while Cowichan has five under-age atom players.”
The size difference is noticeable, Scafe said, pointing out that his own daughter is nine, while some of the Tri-Port players could be as old as 13 or 14.
Cowichan opened the tournament with a 13-0 win over Victoria C1, led by hat tricks from Alijah Scafe and Seren Elkiw, two-goal games from Dixie Bergman, Rylee Wing and Karlee Poznecov and a single from Alivia Cousins.
That was followed by a 10-0 victory over Victoria C2 behind three goals from Poznecov, two each from Bergman and Elena Irving, and one each from Scafe, Elkiw and Wing.
Six different players scored in Cowichan’s 6-0 win over Nanaimo: Scafe, Elkiw, Bergman, Wing, Danielle Branting and Lydia Steen, while Sophia Kennedy earned her third consecutive shutout.
Elkiw and Poznecov did the scoring in the round-robin finale against Tri-Port, then each scored twice in the final against the same team, with singles from Branting and Bergman.
