Staff
It all comes down to this.
The Borderland Soccer League will crown its season champs in the women’s and men’s divisions tonight, with both finals beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Struchan Gilson Memorial Soccer Pitch.
In women’s play, the heavily-favoured La Place Rendez-Vous U18 Voyageurs will face Taggs.
Taggs, who went 4-12 during the regular season to finish last in the three-team circuit, will be riding a wave of momentum after rallying from a 3-0 halftime deficit in Tuesday night’s semi-final to upset second-place Al’s Racquet Stringing 4-3.
Despite being one player short for most of the first half, and having no more than one substitute all game compared to four for Al’s, Taggs looked to get stronger as the game wore on.
Al’s got off to a quick start with three tallies in the first 16 minutes.
Hailey McEvoy muscled a shot through keeper Jess Badiuk from just inside the 18-yard box three minutes in before Hailey Beaudry’s cross into the box was accidentally redirected past Badiuk by Taggs’ defender Jacy Gagne in the 13th minute.
Three minutes later, Katie Beninger made a great run to the outside on Macey McMillen, then cut inside past Suzie Sonnasinh before ripping a shot to the low right corner of the net.
But the arrival of defensive fullback Alina Eldridge and keeper Katie Stearns for Taggs late in the half signalled a turning of the tide, with Stearns taking over between the pipes to start the second half.
In the 57th minute, Sara Roach nailed a high bender that arced over Al’s keeper Phyllis Pierson and in.
Roach cut the gap to 3-2 just five minutes later when she capitalized on some defensive zone confusion by Al’s to pound the ball off Pierson’s hands and in.
In the 73rd minute, Myan Miller split two defenders near the sideline at midfield, then stopped on a dime to shed oncoming defender Sara Kellar before ripping a shot far side to even the score.
Then with five minutes to go, Ericka Tymkin had the wind knocked out of her as she volleyed the ball and then sent it into the 18-yard box.
Doubled over after absorbing the blow, Tymkin never saw the end result of her perfect pass—which found Cassidy Roach all alone behind the Al’s defence.
Roach promptly deposited the ball past Pierson for the game-winner.
The Voyageurs, meanwhile, had a bye to tonight’s final after finishing atop the standings with a 14-2 record.
On the men’s side, it will be third-place International Travel Services and fourth-place Pharmasave duking it out for the title tonight.
ITS sent defending champion Manitou Forest Products packing Tuesday—winning 3-2 in the second leg of their two-game semi-final to capture the series 5-3 on aggregate.
The game was scoreless at halftime despite Manitou being without last season’s top goalie in James Pavier, whose back injury suffered several weeks ago knocked him out of action for the season.
Carter Chorney guarded the cage in the first half, then moved out front to provide some offensive spark, with Borderland Lightning U14 goalie Jacob Albright taking over.
ITS pounced on the chance to challenge a less-seasoned keeper, with Jesse Fuhrer netting the game-opening goal from in tight.
With Manitou pushing to score twice to force overtime, ITS struck for two more goals from Caleb Koomans and Nico Veldhuisen.
Nolan Short and Chris Sinclair replied for Manitou in too little, too late fashion against winning keeper Ben Whitburn.
Pharmasave advanced to the final after topping the first-place Voyageurs 2-1 in their second leg Monday night to win 3-2 on aggregate.
In the third-place game held last night, the Voyageurs blanked Manitou 5-0.
Joey Angus led the way with a hat trick, with Kevin Metke and Connor Bujold netting the other goals—which all came in the first half.
Gavin Richardson earned the shutout while Mark Faragher took the loss.
