Ballenas Secondary School’s high-octane senior girls soccer team captured their school’s first AA North Island title in a while on Tuesday in Comox, outscoring their opponents 7-0 over three games and clipping Brentwood College 1-nil in the final.
With the win, the Whalers punched their ticket to the Island Championships slated for Brentwood in Mill Bay Monday and Tuesday. The top three teams advance to the provincials the following week in Vancouver.
The Whalers lost to Brooks in the final of the North Islands last year. They lost to Claremont in the final of the Islands last year and went on to a 15th finish at the BCs.
The nucleus of this same team won the North Islands both years as junior players.
“It felt good, the kids were excited for sure,” BSS head coach Larry Stefanek said after when asked about clinching the North Island title. “I mean three shutouts, you can’t ask for much more than that.”
“It’s been a while,” he said of the last time a Ballenas senior girls team has won the North Islands. “I think they did it back in 2002.”
The Whalers opened the qualifying tournament last Monday with a 3-0 win over Shawnigan Lake. Emma Greig struck twice for Ballenas and Rachel Jones added the other goal with all three coming in the first half.
On Tuesday against the Highlands Raiders, Emma, Rachel and Gaby Hebert staked the Whalers to another 3-0 first half lead, which is how it stood.
Against Brentwood in the tournament final the Whalers dominated the second half and were finally rewarded when Emma scored the winning goal in the final minute of the game.
“That was a close game,” said Stefanek, pointing out they had beaten them 5-2 the week before to get the number one seed.
“We came out a bit slow in the first half and the second half we took over.”
Whalers’ keeper Rebecca Bonnell earned all three shutouts in net.
“We’re looking forward to the Islands,” the longtime local coach surmised, adding, “we’re scoring goals, we’re creating a ton of chances (and) we’re pretty strong defensively … we have a few injuries, but that’s part of the game.”
The North Island sweep lifts the Whalers to 16-3-2 overall on the season. They finished the regular season unbeaten at 5-0 in league play, and head into the Island finals riding an eight-game win streak.
The senior girls from Kwalikum Secondary School were also in the mix in Comox but came up just short in their bid for a berth in the Islands.
The Kondors beat Brendtwood on penalties in game one; lost to the Mark Isfeld Ice and on Tuesday lost to the Gulf Islands Scorpions, 3-nil.
