Joey Payeur
Right player, right place, right time.
Sydney Radigan came up clutch in the biggest game of the season for the second-straight year—once again scoring the game-winning goal to lead the Muskies to a 1-0 victory over the host Dryden Eagles in the NorWOSSA final last Wednesday.
The victory gave the Muskies their third-straight league crown and another berth at the OFSAA girls’ championship, which runs tomorrow through Saturday in North Bay.
“I didn’t expect I would get another one,” chuckled Radigan, who converted Taylor Croswell’s cross into the Eagles’ 18-yard box in the 32nd minute.
“I just kicked it and [Eagles’ keeper Alyssa Deschene] stopped it, but she fumbled it and it went in,” added the striker, who also broke Dryden’s hearts with the decisive marker in a 2-1 triumph in last year’s gold-medal game.
“To get one playing against the wind in the first half felt good, although we were trying to get another one to get the pressure off,” Radigan noted.
Muskie head coach Sarah Faragher commended Radigan not only on her timely goal, but her effort all season.
“I joked with her that she should remind me why we had her playing in the midfield last season,” smiled Faragher.
“She [Radigan] is so much more effective up top,” she noted. “She has good timing, she’s good 1-on-1 possessing the ball, turning and making a move.
“We didn’t really let her shine until this year,” Faragher admitted.
Both sides were hampered by a slick field saturated from heavy thunderstorms a day earlier.
“The first half, it was really messy and scrambly,” noted Faragher.
“We would have liked to have pumped in a few more but 1-0 is still a win,” she reasoned.
“Every single player fell at least once, I think,” added Radigan. “My feet were completely soaked by the end.”
Dryden, which won its semi-final match 2-0 over the Kenora Broncos earlier in the day, intensified its aggressiveness in searching for the equalizer—only to run out of time.
“I think because they lost to us 5-0 the previous week, they wanted to get us back for it,” guessed Radigan.
“They were pretty pushy out there but we held our own.”
The Muskies’ defensive prowess was a highlight of the contest, especially on the part of “The Four A-ces.”
Alina Eldridge, Abby Sanders, Avery Wilson-Hands, and Annalise Hayes walled off the path to Fort High’s goal time and again as the Eagles were hard-pressed to get any high-quality shot against Bryanna Dustin, who went the distance in earning the shutout.
“We’ve got a solid back line,” lauded Faragher, whose team had two other goals called off against Dryden due to offsides violations.
“They’re not afraid to take the ball up and start the attack,” she noted.
“I love that forward thinking,” Faragher added. “They’re really offensive-minded players and they’re not afraid to get beat.”
As for staying with Dustin following a season in which she and Moriah Carradice platooned, with each playing one half during most games?
“Bryanna had one kind of wobbly play but she was vocal with her teammates and really in the game, and that’s why I stuck with her in the second half,” Faragher said.
The Muskies now face the OFSAA mountain once again—this time as the No. 2 seed in Pool ‘B’ of the 20-team tournament.
Having won just one game at OFSAA two years ago and then going 0-4 there last season, Faragher said this is the most ambitious and confident group she’s had going into the all-Ontarios yet.
“This is the third trip for some of the girls and that’s huge,” she stressed.
“They want to get out of pool play and be in the top two.
“It’s doable,” added Faragher. “We’re not telling them it’s an unrealistic goal.
“If you don’t make it there for five years, the novelty of OFSAA is the best part to a player,” she noted.
“But we’re going there to get stuff done this time,” she vowed. “We’re going to leave our mark.”
Faragher won’t be there to see it for herself, however.
She passed the coaching reins for OFSAA to assistant coach Jess Caul due to being pregnant with her second child and unable to travel due to health reasons.
The Muskies also will shoot for gold without veteran striker Ashley Croswell and rookie Janissa Judson, as well as rookie Hailee Barnard.
Judson’s ankle injury in the last regular-season game put her out for the season while Croswell deemed her sprained ankle bad enough to stay home.
Barnard initially was the random choice out of the six Grade 9s to have to stay behind due to new OFSAA rules allowing a team to send only 24 people to OFSAA, including one coach and one teacher rep.
Croswell’s withdrawal opened the door for Barnard to go, but she decided to opt out for personal reasons.
Joining the Muskies in Pool ‘B’ are the top-seeded Bishop Macdonell Celtics (Guelph), who captured OFSAA gold in 2014 in Collingwood, third-ranked Holy Trinity Tigers (Bradford West Gwillimbury), fourth-rated Saint Paul Catholic High School Patriots (Niagara Falls), and fifth-seeded Richview Saints (Etobicoke).
Fort High opens play tomorrow at 10 a.m. (all times Central) against Holy Trinity, then faces Richview at 1 p.m.
The Muskies will take on Bishop Macdonell at 7:30 a.m. on Friday before wrapping up pool play at noon against Saint Paul.
The top two from each of the four pools advance to the cross-over quarter-finals that afternoon.
The semi-finals are set for Saturday at 8 a.m., followed by the bronze-medal game at noon and the gold-medal final at 2 p.m.
