At first glance, it appeared as though the Notre Dame Cougars had pulled off a major upset in Saturday’s Central Alberta High School Soccer League girls final.
But was the Cougars’ 4-0 victory over the previously undefeated Lindsay Thurber Raiders at Edgar Park truly a shocker?
“Oh, no. I think our girls gave it 110 per cent in our (regular season) game when we did lose to them 4-2 and that game could have gone either way,” said Cougars coach Laurna Paetz. “Today it went our way.
“The last game we missed shots and today they missed shots. It was a good team that we played today and a good victory.”
Chelsea Antonio posted the shutout for the Cougars, who got a goal from each of Renee Harder, Cierra Stephens, Teala McEwan and Katelyn Kyle.
The Raiders were 7-0-0 during regular-season play while scoring 67 goals and allowing just two. The Cougars finished second with a 5-1-1 slate with 41 goals for and eight against.
“I’ll be honest, I kind of feel like the Pittsburgh Penguins right now,” said Lindsay Thurber coach Darren Kochan. “Our girls scored 67 goals this year and today we were just snake-bitten. We kind of ran out of luck and momentum. It happens in soccer.”
The Cougars dumped the Lacombe Rams 7-1 in an earlier semifinal as Kelsie Caine — named the MVP of the championship match — netted three goals. Harder, McEwan, Kyle and Nicole Friedl also tallied for the winners, while Savannah Lamarche scored the lone goal for Lacombe.
The Raiders, meanwhile, cruised past the Sylvan Lake H.J. Cody Lakers 10-0 in the other semifinal, getting four goals from Teagen Shapka, two from each of Richelle Doyan and Kiera Fujimoto and singles from Octavia Langan and Mikaela Kykkanen.
“I have been so impressed by this group of girls, with their attitude, their coachability and to top it off, their skill,” said Paetz. “It’s not often that you get such a well-rounded group of girls that have it all. It was a pleasure to coach them and today was just the icing on the cake.”
Kochan said the Raiders will be back with a vengeance next season.
“I think we’ve started something special here,” he said. “We’ve changed the culture of the team and we have some definite depth now with having six Grade 9 players on our squad and only losing three Grade 12 girls.
“That’s kind of a basic building block and we’re just going to move forward from here.”
l Notre Dame made it a clean sweep of the Central Alberta titles Saturday with a 3-0 victory over the defending champion Hunting Hills Lightning in the boys championship final.
Luis Moreno, Theo Gill and Rayden Crawley scored for the Cougars, while teammate Rohinesh Ram was named MVP of the final.
Cougars coach Humberto Aspillaga praised his players for the dedication and perseverance they displayed prior to the season and beyond.
“The boys were excellent, they worked hard to be here (championship final),” said Aspillaga. “We were practising and running at 7 a.m. in the morning in the snow for three weeks before the season started.
“Today we controlled the ball and played excellent to the outside. It was an excellent final for Hunting Hills too, but our team deserved the win. All of the hard work before and during the season paid off and we got great support from the school.”
The Cougars, on goals by Jose Posada and Vezo Gama, blanked Central Alberta Christian 2-0 in semifinal play, while the Lightning got past Lacombe 3-2 in a shootout.
Nathan Millawong and Skylar Roth netted the Hunting Hills regulation-time goals. Austin Ericson and Jelle Hoogenboom replied for Lacombe.
The girls and boys B-side and consolation results:
Girls semifinals
Hunting Hills 18 Alix 0
HH: Melissa Brouwer 4, Merissa Mand 3, Angela Ellithorpe 2, Rachel Kuz 2, Kristen Loney 2, Priscilla Mand 2, Rachelle Fallis, Kim Hayton, Sarah Stewart.
Central Alberta Christian 8 Eckville 2
CACHS: Sarah Ubels 3, Caitlyn Luymes 2, Katie Tilbury, Celine Dewit, Lisa Bott. Eckville: Ashley McMann 2.
Final
Hunting Hills 2 Central Alberta Christian 0
HH: Rachel Kuz, Merissa Mand.
Consolation
Eckville 4 Alix 2
Eckville: Dana Saari 2, Rylee Forhan 2. Alix: Karolan Phillips 2.
Boys semifinals
Lindsay Thurber 2 Innisfail 0
LT: Ayud Hamud, Huen Yu.
Sylvan Lake 3 Olds 0
Sylvan: Aden Small 2, Riley Prediger.
Final
Sylvan Lake 3 Lindsay Thurber 2 (Shootout)
Sylvan: Aden Small, Tyson Maton. LT: Logan Oddie, Kyle Skogan.
Consolation
Olds 2 Innisfail 0
Olds: Josh Sears 2.