The culmination of the annual Borderland “Ball Blast” women’s soccer tournament was played out on a sun-drenched pitch here Sunday afternoon as local teams Gillons’ and Curves squared off for all the marbles.
The field was swarming in green jerseys as Gillons’ dominated the early going of the women’s final. Ball control and crisp passes led to a perfect set-up for Laureen Cousineau’s boot from just inside the penalty area that gave them a 1-0 lead.
More of the same followed. Two Sarahs—Barton and Vanderplaats—added goals in the dying minutes of the first half to put Gillons’ up 3-0.
“Jessica [Wilson] crossed it and I got it,” Vanderplaats said at the half.
With exhaustion setting in from the nearly 30 degree C heat and an earlier semi-final match, Gil-lons’ began contemplating conserving their energy as well as their lead.
“We’ll probably sit back and play a little more defensive,” said Vanderplaats. “But we obviously still have to attack to some extent.”
And attack they did. Early in the second half, Vanderplaats netted a corner kick past outstretched Curves goalie Amy Saunders for her second goal to give Gillons’ a commanding 4-0 lead.
From that point on, Gillons’ played a defensive game that focused on stopping Curves speedster Jamie LeDuc from working her offensive magic.
LeDuc sprinted to split the defence and get off a quick to shot to break Gillons’ shutout. But unfortunately for the purple-suited Curves players, that was all they could muster.
With the final whistle about to sound and the outcome already established, Wilson added the exclamation point when she rattled a zinger off the post and then connected on her own rebound to make the score 5-1.
Fittingly, Wilson was named Most Valuable Player for her outstanding performance in Gillons’ three tournament wins.
“I’m very happy,” she said afterwards. “[The win] was awesome and it feels great.”
Gillons’ advanced to the final with a 3-0 win over the Thunder Bay Legends in one semi-final Sunday morning.
Curves had doubled the Dryden Steelers 4-2 in the other.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
