Gillons’ retakes women’s soccer lead

The battle for first place in the women’s division of the Borderland Soccer Association has been like a classic championship bout—plenty of counterpunching and no sign of any towels being thrown in.
Gillons’ (10-3) landed the latest body blow with a 5-1 win over Curves (9-3-1) last Thursday evening to move back in front by two points over the defending league champs.
Laureen Cousineau upped her league-leading goal total to 19 by drilling a pair of markers while Sarah Barton, Hope Wilson, and Jessica Wilson added singles.
Cousineau now leads Mandy Wilson by four, with the Curves’ sniper sitting on 15 for the season.
Rebecca Cornell, third in the league in scoring, notched her 10th of the campaign to provide her team with its only offence.
Cousineau also was lethal in Gillons’ 6-2 win over Taggs (0-13-1) last Tuesday (July 15) as she netted a hat trick. Barton added a pair of tallies while Shannon Koval rounded out the scoring for the winners.
Amy Ruff and Trista Barker replied for Taggs.
The news was no better for Taggs the following evening (July 16) when Curves overcame a multiple-player disadvantage to come away with a 5-3 victory.
Nicole Rogozinski blitzed Taggs for a hat trick, raising her season total to seven goals, tied for fifth in the league with teammate Hilary Morgan and Gillons’ Susie Grynol.
Sarah Noonan scored once before being relegated to keeper duties after aggravating a hamstring injury, while Lindsay Roy connected for her ninth of the season to put her fourth in the league standings.
Megan Canfield, Cheryl Wiersema, and Keri Russell supplied the offence for Taggs, who had tied Curves 2-2 back on July 9 for their first point of the season.
Mother Nature and non-soccer commitments washed out two other scheduled games.
Action on July 14 was postponed due to the heavy thunderstorms passing through the area while this past Monday’s confrontation between Gillons’ and Taggs also was postponed after both teams failed to field enough players.
< *c>A win’s a win
It wasn’t pretty, but ITS finally disposed of the doughnut in their win column Sunday night.
With first-place Gillons’ (12-2-1) one player short of the minimum number required to begin the contest, ITS (1-12) was awarded a 1-0 default victory to somewhat ease the misery of a season full of near misses.
One of those came last Thursday against second-place Taggs (7-4-2) in a 4-0 loss. With the 10-time defending league champs missing Olaf and Thor Ruppenstein, ITS held their opponents to a scoreless draw for 55 minutes.
But the constant pressure applied by Taggs eventually led to a goal off a corner kick—and ITS seemed to sag from there.
A penalty kick was awarded after ITS defender John Pierce took down Simeon Naussbaumer in the 18-yard box. Naussbaumer promptly drilled home the free shot on goal past ITS goalie Justin Depodesta to make it 2-0.
Depodesta, who had been spectacular between the pipes during the team’s losing streak, lost his cool after the third Taggs’ goal, earning a yellow and then red card after venting his frustrations following his collision with a Taggs forward in the 18-yard box.
Naussbaumer added a second goal while Jim Naussbaumer and Jeff Campbell had the others for Taggs.
Earlier in the week, Olaf Ruppenstein had both goals for Taggs as they nipped third-place Nova (6-7-1) by a 2-1 count July 15. Struchan Gilson had Nova’s lone goal.
Gillons’ then extended Nova’s woes with a 4-0 shutout July 16. Kyle McTavish knocked in a pair of markers, while Dan Poperechny punched in his sixth and league-leader Jeremy Wilson added his 12th.
It was more dynamic defence on display this past Monday night as Wilson and Matt Basaraba collected goals for Gillons’ in a 2-0 blanking of Taggs.
The July 14 battle between ITS and Taggs also was a casualty of the inclement weather that evening.
Olaf Ruppenstein sits second in league scoring with 10 goals, while Basaraba is third with eight—one ahead of Nova’s Steve Keesic. Adam McTavish is deadlocked in fifth spot with Poperechny and Thor Ruppenstein at six goals.
Scores from yesterday’s women’s game between Curves and Gillons’ and the men’s contest between Nova and ITS were not available by press time.