It’ll be a straight run into season’s end from here for the Borderland soccer leagues.
Both the men’s and women’s league will host their annual “Borderland Ball Blast” tournament starting Friday.
Eight teams including United and the Blizzard, both of Thunder Bay, the Dryden Falcons and Heat, the Kenora Celtics and the local Taggs’, Nova and ITS will compete for the men’s crown while six women’s squads– the local MEC, Gillons’, Curves and Taggs’, Dryden Steelers and Thunder Bay Legend will vie for the women’s title.
From there, women’s league playoffs will begin Aug. 12. The men’s playoffs will begin shortly thereafter.
“It’s busy that’s for sure,” said Jodi Johnson, one of the tourney’s co-organizers. “But we usually need to get the playoffs done. We always end around this time because of the kids going to college.”
For Ball Blast, teams will play round-robin games on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Semi-finals and finals are slated for that afternoon. Top prize for the winning men’s team is $1,000 while the women’s champ will earn $750.
The local Investors team, last year’s women’s champion, won’t compete this year as their team will be playing with their regular league teams. Defending men’s champ Taggs’ will be back.
A social will be held Saturday night at Warp 9.
In league women’s league play, MEC went 2-0 to retake third-place with a 5-9 record. They beat Gillons’, 3-2, and Taggs’, 2-0.
Gillon’s’ continues to lead the way with an 11-4-1 record, followed by Curves (8-5-1). Taggs’ is in last with a 3-11 mark.
Laureen Cousineau (Gillons’) cemented her lead atop the goal-scoring race with four over the week and now has 19. Mandy Wilson (Curves) is next with 11 followed by Gillons’ Carling Barton and her 10 tallies.
Lindsey Roy (Curves) rounds out the top four with nine.
Scores for the men’s league play were not reported. Nova continues to lead the standings followed by Taggs’.