Mitch Calvert
Girls bounced
from contention
By the time you read this, the Muskie boys’ soccer team will know whether or not they have advanced to the quarter-finals at this year’s all-Ontarios in Hamilton.
Battling three other teams for the second playoff berth out of Pool ‘B,’ the black-and-gold had to beat Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton late this morning to have any chance of advancing (the outcome wasn’t known by press time).
The Muskies (0-1-2) dropped a hard-fought 2-1 decision to second-ranked St. Joseph’s (WOSSA) earlier this morning after opening action yesterday with a pair of ties.
Fort High began the day with a scoreless draw against Courtice Secondary School, then matched E.S. Theriault toe-to-toe in a 1-1 tie that afternoon.
Mitch Cain tallied for the Muskies, ranked eighth in the 20-team field, while Shawn Lefebvre had the lone marker for the NEOAA reps.
St. Joseph’s, sitting at 2-0-1 heading into their final round-robin game, already has first place in the pool wrapped up.
The Muskie girls, meanwhile, fell 3-0 to top-ranked St. Joseph’s this morning in Kenora to finish their OFSAA appearance with an 0-3 record.
Muskie co-coach Sarah Noonan said they held the powerhouse squad to just one goal until the final 10 minutes of the game thanks to some stellar goaltending from Taylor Meyers and hard work all over the field.
As reported in yesterday’s Daily Bulletin, the black-and-gold lost their opening game 5-2 to Hamilton District Christian High School yesterday morning.
The black-and-gold, ranked seventh heading into the 16-team tournament, rebounded with a much better effort but suffered the same fate in a 4-0 loss to the Toronto-based Bishop Strachan Bobcats that afternoon.
That game remained scoreless for much of the first half, but the Muskies’ defensive wall finally caved when Emma Hendrie converted on a corner kick from Adrienne Crampton to put Bishop Strachan ahead for good.
“We did give up a lot of corners, and with teams that can cross really well and strike from the middle, it’s dangerous,” Noonan said. “They scored most of their goals that way.”
Crampton would get behind the Muskie defence before the first half ended, blasting a hard shot past a helpless Meyers, who had tried to come out and cut down the angle.
Carly Sterling added to the Bobcats’ lead to start the second half, converting on yet another corner kick by Crampton.
Then a bad bounce led to the fourth goal when Meyers’ attempted clear bounced off the face of Hendrie and behind the Muskie keeper towards the yawning cage.
Sara Kellar tried to clear the ball off the line, but it rolled on her and ended up in the back of her own net.
Bishop Strachan continually tried to expose the Muskie defence with deep passes, and prevented Fort High from mounting any sort of sustained offensive attack.
“We’re just not getting enough offensive opportunities, and when we do, they aren’t in close to the net where we have a chance to score,” Muskie senior Paula Vangel said.
Sara Roach had the best chance to score when she fought off a defender in the box and let a shot go labelled for the top corner—only to see it soar over the crossbar.
Despite the result on the scoreboard, Noonan said her team showed much better effort in Game 2 compared to their opening loss.
“We wanted to come out with a little more energy and drive to start the game, and we came out and did that, which was nice to see,” Noonan lauded.
“We seem to play better when we have that spark, [but] we’re playing against good teams and they capitalized on their opportunities.”
The host Kenora Broncos, meanwhile, tied Sir James Dunn 0-0 yesterday afternoon after suffering a 2-0 loss to Holy Cross in their opener.
