Despite scoring only a single goal in five games, the Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School (PSO) Eagles girls soccer team still managed to finish in the top half of a 12 team tournament in Clearwater last weekend. The girls relied heavily on a strong defensive effort to take sixth place overall.
“I didn’t think we would do as well as we did since we only brought 12 players and a really inexperienced side which included four Grade 8’s. We also didn’t have a goalie and were forced to use four different girls in the position over the weekend,” said Eagles coach Sean Glanville.
In game one on Friday, the Eagles exacted some revenge on a previous 3-0 defeat to Abbotsford Christian at the Hope tournament and downed them in a shootout. The game was scoreless at 0-0 in regulation. Daneya Tessaro and Abbey Foote scored in the shootout for the Eagles and Marina Guimond was the winning goaltender.
“In the past four years in indoors and outdoors we have never won a shootout in several tries so it felt good to have luck on our side for once,” said Glanville.
In game two, the Eagles ran into a powerful Nechako Valley Vikings team from Vanderhoof that had won both the Hope and Merritt tournaments this season. Playing back to back also didn’t help PSO as they dropped a 3-0 decision.
In their third and final game on Friday, the Eagles picked up a 1-0 victory over Fort St. James. Ivy Sahara scored the Eagles’ lone goal of the weekend. With the two wins, the Eagles finished second in Pool A and would play for 4-6th placing on Saturday.
On Saturday the Eagles dropped a hard-fought 1-0 decision to hosts Clearwater and in their fifth and final game, they drew 0-0 with Northside Christian School also of Vanderhoof. Unfortunately, the Eagles fell in a shootout this time to finish sixth overall.
Hanna Ray and Marina Guimond were named the Eagles’ MVP’s over the weekend.
“Marina (Guimond) took on the goaltending duties for two games and was phenomenal for us and she is always very reliable on defence; her speed and athleticism saved us several times,” said Glanville. “Hannah (Ray) had a great tournament and she was forced to slide from her usual defensive role to centre mid and she gave an awesome effort and enabled us to have a presence in the middle of the field.”
Defenders Nicole Varney, Steph Hilstad, Guimond and Valeria Martinez were terrific all weekend and led the defensive effort. The Eagles’ four Grade 8’s Emily Ried, Emily Machado, Kaye-lyn Taylor and Robin Fry also had a strong showing and were vital to the team’s success.
The Eagles’ will wrap up their season this weekend in Prince George with the North Central AA Zone Championships on Sunday and Monday, May 13 and 14. The winning team will earn a trip to the BC Provincial Championships.