North Island Soccer

Coming back from the Red Saturday rested and happy, the Senior Girls started their week off with the very competitive North Island Soccer Championships hosted at Brentwood. With our first game against Isfeld Ice, a consistently strong team, we played well with strong defense and solid movement through our midfield, but sadly we were not able to pull off a win. Our next game was against number one ranked Ballenas Secondary School. They came out strong but we defended our half well. With strange weather conditions and strong forwards, they ended up with the win so we went into Tuesday’s games knowing we needed to win. After a much-needed sleep, we felt rested and ready to go for our first game against Kwalikum Secondary School. Coming out strong, we dominated a lot of the play and Sarah L, Mack ’16 scored the first goal of the game! Up 1–0, we knew they would fight back hard so we kept our pressure up.  With another great shot by Sarah we were up 2–0 and ended the game strong! Our final game was against Carihi, the team that beat us in the finals at the Campbell River Tournament. With both teams playing strong and structured, the game was an even fight on the scoreboard but we were dominating a lot of the play. By the end of the game both teams were exhausted but dug deep as the game went into twenty minutes of overtime! After another twenty minutes there were a lot of chances and near goals but the score remained 0–0. After all the sweat and energy from the game there was only one thing to do to determine the winner: penalty kicks. One by one we went up and shot, some of us finding the back of the net and others being stopped by their goalie. After eighteen emotionally tense shots on net and amazing saves by our goalie, Hannah W, Allard ’15, the game was over with the Ballenas coming out on top. Although we lost our last game, we are still moving on to the Island Championship this Monday and Tuesday: we cannot wait for the intense competition. Mollie MG, Mackenzie ‘15