The Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School Eagles senior girls soccer team returned home from their exhibition trip to Victoria this past weekend undefeated after two convincing victories.
The Eagles first game was on Wednesday versus Hope Secondary, the same side who defeated them in a shootout on the previous Friday. The Eagles exacted some revenge with a 5-1 victory. After trailing 1-0 the Eagles came back with five unanswered goals. Stephanie Hilstad led the offence with two goals while Abbey Foote, Daneya Tessaro and Robin Fry all added singles. Rene Van Osch was the winning goaltender.
“We only scored four goals in six games at the Hope tourney the previous weekend, so it was great to score five in a single game,” said Eagles coach Sean Glanville.
On Thursday the Eagles crossed the Juan De Fuca Strait to play Parkland Secondary from Sidney, B.C. They again fell behind 1-0 only to bounce back with a pair of goals from Ashley Holyk and Abbey Foote to take a 2-1 lead heading into halftime. A scary moment occurred just before the half when Eagles’ defender Ali Walker suffered a nasty foot injury and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance.
“It was too bad because seconds before I was singing Ali’s praises for being our best player that game and shutting down Parkland’s top striker,” said Glanville. “It’s doubtful she’ll be playing in our final two tournaments in May in Clearwater and Prince George.”
The Eagles’ regrouped after a long injury delay and scored twice more in the second half with Foote adding another and Hilstad putting the final touches on a 4-2 victory.
Unfortunately, the Eagles only got the pair of games under their belt as a couple schools had to cancel due to lack of numbers. The girls did use the Friday in Victoria as a tourist day and visited the Parliament Buildings as well as tour the harbour, downtown and ocean areas.
PSO had three Grade 8’s experiencing their first soccer trip and Robin Fry, Emily Machado and Kaye-Lyn Taylor all played well. Hannah Ray was the fourth player seeing her first out-of-town action with the Eagles and was a very pleasant surprise and filled in nicely on defence and will be looked to fill the void left by Walker’s injury. Other Eagles making solid contributions included Marina Guimond, Nicole Varney, Ivy Sahara, Lexi Mills and Lauren Popadinac.
“The Grade 8’s really impressed me as Robin (Fry) scored a nice goal and Emily was running through several girls at a time which is really rare for a Grade 8 playing against seniors,” said Glanville.
The Eagles are hosting a fundraiser car wash by donation today from 12 to 6 p.m. at Exeter Valley Truck & Car Wash. Your support would be greatly appreciated as money raised will help with their upcoming tournament in Clearwater May 4 and 5 and Zones in Prince George May 13 and 14.
