Muskies look to next year for soccer glory

The Muskie boys’ and girls’ soccer teams saw their short seasons come to an abrupt end last week with losses at the NorWOSSA playoffs last Wednesday in Dryden.
The girls suffered the more difficult loss of the two—coming into the day with a bye to the final, only to lose on penalty kicks to the host Eagles after battling to a scoreless draw through regulation time and two 10-minute sudden-death overtimes.
“I thought that we played awesome,” said girls’ co-coach Laura Craig. “We played a great game. . . . We definitely outplayed them [Dryden] and couldn’t follow through, I guess.”
Craig admitted it was a hard loss to take.
“We practised penalty kicks, we practised a lot, but nothing can simulate . . . what really goes on when it actually happens.
“You can scream, you can shout, but it’s a unique situation—and a tough one to be put in.”
If nothing else, the game proved to be a last hurrah for Muskie keeper Taylor Meyers, who got the nod for the big game and kept her team in the match and through the two overtimes.
“She was feeling good, was looking good in practice, so we went with Taylor,” Craig explained. “Definitely I don’t think we would’ve changed our minds.”
The boys may have gone in as underdogs, but they didn’t fare much better, losing to Dryden by a 3-1 score in the semi-final Wednesday morning.
“It didn’t go very well,” regretted left back Jordan York. “I’m kind of disappointed with the results. I thought that we played a good game, but the ball didn’t bounce our way.”
“I don’t know if we were playing to our full potential, but we played a pretty good game,” he added.
Head coach Shane Beckett held a similar sentiment.
“It was disappointing because I really thought that we handled the play and controlled the play, and had our opportunities.
“[But] Dryden got up on us and defended us well, and we couldn’t get it worked out.”
Beckett also pointed to injuries to Garnet Cornell and Joey Therrieau as possible setbacks in the match.
“At the end of the day, we still carried the play, and had possession and had tons of opportunities, especially in the second half,” he noted.
One of those chances came on a goal scored from a scrum in the final three minutes of regulation time that pulled the black-and-gold to within 2-1. But Dryden rallied to regain their two-goal lead and sealed the victory.
York admitted the Muskies’ lone goal was a momentum builder, but that it “happened so late in the game, there wasn’t much we could do.”
“We come out with one goal, you’re not going win a soccer game if you don’t take advantage,” Beckett added.
“Dryden did a great job of limiting our real, threatening opportunities.”
With the season now over, both Muskie squads will be looking to next year—a process that will involve heavy recruitment. Many returning players will play with the Borderland Soccer Association over the summer, but it’s the losses that are the real story.
Beckett lamented the future loss of seniors on the team, naming Steve Boileau and Chad Faragher as two pairs of cleats that will be hard to fill.
“Losing guys like that, it’s going to have it’s affect,” he admitted.
If the boys have it bad, the girls have it much worse—the team will experience a full turnover save for midfielders Lauren Pierce and Erin Kaemingh.
“It’s going to hurt us, but there’s a lot of good up-and-comers,” Craig said, encouraging girls to try out next season for a very open 2008 roster.