Joey Payeur
The only Muskie girls’ soccer player guaranteed not to get another tomorrow on the high school field of battle swallowed the pain of what had transpired.
Then, like the true leader she has become, Maggie Jean gave thanks for what she had rather than focus on what she didn’t.
“This has been my life, my passion,” said the midfielder, her voice filled with emotion, just minutes after coming face-to-face with the end of what has been a standout high school athletic career.
“I’m so glad I got to spend this time with my friends for all my years of high school sports.”
Jean was the only player in her “victory lap” year for the black-and-gold, whose try for a fourth-straight NorWOSSA crown fell just short in a 2-1 loss to the Dryden Eagles in the league final last Wednesday in Kenora.
“We’ve got a young team and it’s been a rebuilding year for us,” noted Jean, one of only three players in Grade 12 or higher on this year’s roster.
“The fact we got this far with such a young team, that’s pretty good.”
The Muskies lost all four of their games this season with the Eagles, who captured their first NorWOSSA crown since 2007 to gain a berth at the OFSAA ‘AA’ girls’ championship starting tomorrow in North Bay.
But Fort High improved in each one and pushed Dryden to its limits in the last two–both 2-1 wins for the Eagles.
“Today was the best game we had against them all year,” said Jean, who didn’t think her team suffered any ill effects after their 1-0 semi-final win earlier in the day against the host Broncos before taking on a rested Eagles’ squad.
“The morning game warmed us up for the final,” she noted.
The Muskies took the lead in the 23rd minute on a perfectly-placed penalty kick to the lower left corner by Alina Eldridge past Dryden keeper Mandy Tourond after an Eagles’ player got a hand on the ball in the 18-yard box.
Fort High then looked ready to carry that lead into halftime–until an egregious officiating error opened a massive door for the Eagles.
Mistakenly thinking the final was being played with 45-minute halves, instead of the actual 40 they were supposed to be, the referee wrongly tacked on five extra minutes to the end of the first half.
The Eagles showed their appreciation when, in the fourth of those five minutes, Dryden ace striker Tori Kelly unloaded a shot from the top right of the Muskies’ 18-yard box that sailed high over keeper Carmen Godin and in for an equalizer that never should have happened.
The referee, who owned up to the error after the game, walked at halftime from the field to where the rules sheet was hanging more than 100 yards away before he realized his mistake.
“It was a bummer for that to go in,” grimaced Jean. “But you’ve got to outplay the refs in some of the games.”
Dryden turned up the intensity against a more fatigued Muskie squad in the second half and finally broke through for the game-winner in the 64th minute.
Payton Boyko slipped in behind defender Simone Payne and stayed one stride ahead of her into the 18-yard box before rocketing a shot into the bottom right corner that Godin tried to block in vain by executing a full-out display of the splits.
With their most dangerous scorer watching from the sidelines in Abby Sanders after her year-ending knee injury during the pre-season, the Muskies pressed late in the game as Jean nearly set up the tying goal twice.
Her cross from the left side in the 71st minute went over Tourond but just went wide, without a Muskie able to get to it in time.
Then in the final three minutes, Jean fed another pass across with Janissa Judson racing in from the far side.
But Judson’s shot, just as Jess Steele’s chance did in the first half, ricocheted off the post and stayed out.
“I think the heat and tiredness were more factors than that first goal [by Dryden],” said Jean.
“We had shots at the net,” she noted. “We just couldn’t get them to go in.”
Muskie co-coaches Sara Roach and Chantal Jodoin weren’t reaching for excuses, either.
“It is what it is,” reasoned Roach. “You can’t do anything about it.”
The Muskies won the semi-final on the strength of Judson’s conversion in the 20th minute of Taylor Croswell’s pinpoint cross from the left wing.
Judson smacked it past Broncos’ keeper Mica Wells on the vacant right side of the net.
Kenora thought it had tied the game in the 36th minute, only to have Midori Hoppe called for offside on her goal.
Jean had to come out for a few minutes after getting hit in the nose hard enough to draw blood in her attempt to block a Broncos’ shot.
Kenora then controlled the ball for most of the second half, with their best chance coming in the 56th minute when Hoppe’s blast from the top of the box was turned aside on a great leaping save by Godin, who earned the shutout despite still recovering from a leg muscle injury sustained in the regular-season finale.
Roach had a well of optimism looking ahead to next season, with nearly her whole roster eligible to return–and all of them one year older and wiser.
“You look at our starting lineup and seven of the 10 that were out there (not including Godin in goal) are Grade 10 and under,” she noted.
“They’re only going to get stronger.”
