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Hope shines at 16-team girls’ tournament

Teams from Kootenays, Vanderhoofe , Pender Harbour in town over weekend
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Hope Secondary forward, Taylor Green puts pressure on Merritt’s Emmanuelle Dugas, in the second and third-place final, Saturday at Hope Secondary field. Dugas scored the opening goal for Merritt in the dying seconds of the first half and Merritt scored another late in the game for a 2-0 win. Mustangs Rachel McAllister (left) and Emily Taylor in the background. HSS hosted 15 girls’ teams, from as far away as Vanderhoof and Kaslo. Eric Meijer photo

Sixteen girls’ soccer teams slogged through the cold, rain and mud, Friday then were rewarded with pleasant spring weather on Saturday, in Hope Secondary’s biggest-ever soccer tournament.

Teams came from as far away as Pender Harbour, Vanderhoof and the Kootenays, with some teams arriving on Thursday night. Games started at 11, Friday morning and concluded just before 8 p.m.

Saturday games ran from 9 to 2:30. To get all 48 mini-matches in (40 or 60 minutes each), fields at Silver Creek and C.E. Barry were used, in addition to two at HSS.

Hope Mustangs head coach, Jeremy Smith said he had a good team of volunteers helping set up the fields and nets. “Joleena Prest really helped by creating the contact lists, the leader board — and a back-up draw for 15 teams, in case one team couldn’t make it. Kim Stewart was a huge help with organization and coaching, as were Carston Cattrel and Ben Gladue,” said Smith, Sunday evening.

His cellphone had been chiming all tournament long, receiving game scores and queries from coaches and referees. “It was well over 100 calls or texts,” he figured.

“We had filled up with 12 teams, then Pender Harbour (Sunshine Coast) and Seabird Island wanted to come,” said Smith. “So I called Williams Lake and Agassiz and they came on board. Williams Lake brought a junior team but they had good skills.” They ended up in the middle of the pack.

“Top to bottom, it was really quite close,” said Smith, whose Mustangs finished third overall. “Any of the top five teams could have taken it. There were lots of tie-breaking shoot-outs and one-goal wins.

Hope drew 1-1 in their Friday opener, versus 100 Mile House and fell behind on the first shots of the shoot-out. Their next four hit the mark, giving Hope the win.

The day ended with a close match against Nechako Valley, of Vanderhoof. Hope had the game in the bag, when Nechako knocked in a dying-seconds goal to force a tiebreaker. Nechako won the shoot-out and went on to win the tournament.

Mustang forward, Taylor Green was given team MVP honours by Smith, as was defender Hannah Chisholm. Green scored two goals and played tenaciously, said Smith.

Smith encourages his goalkeepers to come way out of the penalty area when play is up the field, to give added options to the defensive line. It can get exciting, when the opponents counter with a long ball or a breakaway and the keeper has to head home in a hurry.

Friday afternoon, when a Kaslo attacker was heading for a tying goal in an empty net, Chisholm came flying from the far side of the field to cut off the ball and knock it to safety. She then assisted on the insurance goal by Faith Johnny, late in the 2-0 game.

Kaslo’s JV Humphries’ coach, Grace Broadfoot said her team shared a bus with the Mount Sentinel girls, who are about an hour and a half closer to Hope but in the same school district. They shared the longest travel record with Nechako Valley, at about 9 hours. This, just a week after the Humboldt Broncos’ bus crash.

“In light of the tragedy in Saskatchewan, our school showed support by wearing jerseys and/or green last week,” said Broadfoot, via e-mail. “The event was also brought up briefly during our weekly assembly, in reference to our trip to Hope. As a team, we can definitely sympathize with the tragedy.”

JV Humphries is a K-12 school of about 220 students in total.

“The tournament was our first six games of the season, and for some of the girls, their first real soccer games ever,” said Broadfoot, who co-coaches with colleague, Brenna Leitch. “More than half of our team are grade 8s and 9s.

“We had only been outside for two weeks prior to the tournament, due to the snow and we have yet to have the lines painted on our field. We really enjoyed the tournament and staying in Hope. It was great for the girls to play so many teams that were similar in abilities, especially to start the season off.

“It was also fun for them to explore a new town,” she added. “We spent two nights at the Windsor motel, cooked dinners and breakfasts in our rooms, but otherwise ate out around town and shopped at the grocery store.”

The Mustangs are off to Merritt for an overnighter tournament this weekend. They’ll try to get a leg up on their hosts, who beat them 2-0 in the second and third-place final in Hope. They travel to Clearwater, May 4 and 5 and Osoyoos, May 11 and 12.



laura.baziuk@bpdigital.ca

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