There were no easy wins for the Shuswap’s U16 Girls soccer team at the B.C. Girls B Cup Provincials last weekend.
The Shuswap Youth Soccer Association (SYSA) team placed third in the competition after going up against teams from Quesnel, Burnaby and Vancouver.
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During the first game, the girls held their own against a Quesnel team who went on to win the championship. While the Shuswap team didn’t score any goals throughout the game, neither did Quesnel. This is credited to defensive plays by Janae Bocking, Brooklyn Davidson, Laura Hall, Bella Raspberry, Maria Ruiz-White and Holly McCaskill.
Game two was against the Burnaby Girls Soccer Club. This contest remained scoreless until Burnaby kicked one in during the last quarter. This game marked Shuswap team’s only loss of the weekend.
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Next was a rematch of last year’s gold-medal game where SYSA played Vancouver Electricity. SYSA again proved a tough opponent for last year’s runner’s up with a goal by Sophia Ruckle and a brace by Phoebe Barnes to finish the game with a 3-2 win.
Finally, SYSA played for bronze on Sunday against a Juan De Fuca team from Victoria. Going up 2-0 with goals by Barnes and Teslyn Bates, Juan De Fuca came back to bring the game to a 2-2 tie before Taylor Sanford scored to make it 3-2. With a minute left, Juan De Fuca tied the game again to force a 20-minute scoreless overtime which was ultimately decided by penalty shots.
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Goals by Lys Milne, Janae Bocking, Sophia Ruckle and two saves by goalkeeper Julia Hart gave the SYSA team the win for bronze.
The team would like to thank their outstanding coaches, Tracey Johnson and Carlos Ruiz, for the wonderful season.
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