Lucas Punkari
For the first 40 minutes of the NorWOSSA girls’ soccer semi-final between the Muskies and Dryden Eagles here last Wednesday morning, it was anyone’s guess as to who would be advancing to the final that afternoon against the first-place Kenora Broncos.
But when the final whistle blew after the next 40 minutes of play, it was the Eagles who were celebrating on the pitch after a 2-1 victory while the black-and-gold were left wondering what might have been.
“I thought the girls played their hearts out and I thought that they deserved to win,” said Taylor Meyers, who co-coached the squad with Nicole Rogozinski this season.
“There were a few bad calls that went against [us] and that’s all there is to it,” she added.
Just a few minutes after a Muskie shot went just wide of the net, the Eagles were awarded a free-kick at the edge of the 18-yard box after defender Angel McCormack was whistled for colliding with a Dryden player.
And Dryden’s Abby Bartlett made absolutely no mistake—finding the top corner of the goal to give her team a 1-0 lead.
“That is something that we practise a lot during the week, and she was doing that during our practices before this game,” Eagles’ coach Gabe Mottlho said of Bartlett’s goal.
“She made a very good free kick and it was an awesome goal,” he smiled.
After the Eagles had a couple more offensive chances go wide of the mark, the visitors were awarded a penalty kick just past the halfway mark of the second half, which Morgan Church booted past Muskie keeper Nicole Horn to make it 2-0.
Fort High got on the scoreboard a few minutes later when Cecilia Berry scored on a penalty kick, but it came too late to complete the comeback.
“That was her first game for us since coming back from an injury,” Rogozinski said of Berry’s performance.
“She’s a great player and to see her pop one in for us on the last game of the season was a great thing to see,” she added.
Despite finishing the NorWOSSA season with only one win to their name, a 1-0 triumph over the Kenora Broncos in their regular-season finale back on May 23, the coaches were pleased with the progress the team made during the campaign.
“We came a long way from where we were at the start of the year,” Rogozinski lauded.
“Our overall play on the field had been getting better and better, and I thought that we were a better team than Dryden and that we deserved to win that game.
“Things just didn’t work in our favour today,” she sighed.
The loss also was a bittersweet one for the coaches as it marked the final time a number of the players will be wearing the black-and-gold colours for Fort High.
“There is around six or so that will be moving [on] and it’s going to leave quite a big hole in our lineup,” Meyers warned.
“It’s going to be hard to replace some of them, but we will be looking to those girls that will be returning to fill those roles and to step up,” she added.
As for the NorWOSSA girls’ final, it was a one-sided affair for the Broncos, who dominated the Eagles en route to a 4-0 win and their third-straight league crown.
“I think the girls got a little bit of a wake-up call after what happened to them [the previous] week,” noted Broncos’ coach Janice England, referring to that 1-0 loss at the hands of the Muskies.
“The focus in the last week of practice was maintain that mental focus and to also raise our level of intensity, and the girls came out and did just that, which you saw with the final score,” added Tracey Benoit, who helped coach the Broncos.
Kenora is now headed to St. Thomas to compete for the OFSAA ‘AA’ girls’ soccer title, which gets underway tomorrow and runs until Saturday.
“We have improved our placing there every year that we have gone,” England noted.
“Our goal this year is to be right in the mix for a playoff spot . . . and we will just go from there,” she remarked.
