Mitch Calvert
KENORA—The Muskie girls’ soccer team will head back to the drawing board following a 5-2 loss to Hamilton District Christian High School in their opener at the all-Ontarios here this morning.
Already without the services of Nicole Mueller and Anikka McTavish due to injuries, Kimmy LaFleur was the latest casualty—falling victim to what appeared to be a season-ending knee injury against Hamilton.
“We seem to be jinxed with injuries,” Muskie senior Emma Elliot said. “Everyone is going to have to play more and we’ll have to get through it.”
Despite the short bench, Muskie coach Sarah Noonan refused to use that as excuse for the one-sided loss this morning.
“Injuries are a bit of a factor, but we have to play much better soccer if we hope to be competitive at this tournament,” she stressed.
“It was a pretty disappointing game for us,“ Noonan added. “Our first touch wasn’t good all game, and we aren’t competing hard enough right now.”
The black-and-gold, ranked seventh in the 16-team field and playing in Pool ‘A,’ fell behind early and were on their heels much of the game, but got goals from Paige Yatchuk and Courtney Roach to make the score respectable.
“This is definitely a bit of a wake-up call for us, and hopefully we can turn things around quickly,” Noonan said.
“We need to be ready right from the start in the next one.”
That next one came this afternoon at 1 p.m., when the Muskies hit the pitch against Bishop Strachan (CISSA) in a make-or-break game that likely will decide whether the Muskies advance to the quarter-finals tomorrow (that score wasn’t available as of press time).
The squad wraps up the round-robin portion of the tournament tomorrow at 9 a.m. against top-ranked St. Joseph’s.
Meanwhile, the Muskie boys’ soccer team opened OFSAA play this morning in Hamilton against Courtice Secondary School, although that outcome wasn’t immediately available as of press time.
The black-and-gold, ranked eighth in the 20-team field and playing in Pool ‘B,” then met E.S. Theriault at 12:30 p.m. (CDT) before matching up with second-ranked St. Joseph’s tomorrow at 7 a.m. (CDT).
The squad then wraps up round-robin play tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. (CDT) against Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton.
The top two teams from each pool advance to the quarter-finals.
