The Muskie boys’ and girls’ soccer squads both had strong showings at the NorWOSSA playoffs in Kenora yesterday, but it was the girls who came home with the golden hardware.
The black-and-gold took full advantage of the extra rest that came with their bye to the final thanks to their first-place finish in the regular season, and used it to pull out a 2-0 victory over the host Broncos.
“It was kind of a stalemate, no one had any real good scoring chances and there wasn’t much energy to the game,” girls’ coach Adam Craig admitted.
“Within the last five minutes, we ended up getting a corner kick and they brought all their players back to defend, so we sent everyone forward and it created a big commotion in front and [Kenora] ended up knocking it in themselves.”
Emma Elliott then added a late goal to secure the win—and a trip to the all-Ontarios in Collingwood on June 9-11.
The Muskie boys, meanwhile, opened action yesterday with a 3-1 win over Dryden in the semi-final on goals by Cody Vangel, Mitch Cain, and Kyle Herr.
The squad then gave it a valiant effort in the final against the undefeated Broncos four hours later, but came out on the short end of a 3-1 score to settle for NorWOSSA silver.
“We were up 1-0 at the 12-minute mark and we defended beautifully, but couldn’t hold on,” boys’ coach Shane Beckett lamented.
“They scored one in the last 20 minutes and we came out flying, but we didn’t capitalize on our opportunities [while] they did,” he added.
Beckett certainly couldn’t fault the effort of his team—and has high hopes for next season with 10 players returning to the fold.
“We played right ’til the final whistle and the guys left it all on the field, but you got to put the ball in the net to win,” Beckett said.
“We’ve grown by leaps and bounds, and this was a great group of kids that really came together and busted their butts on the field, so I’m proud of them for that,” he added.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
