Soccer teams rise to occasion

In their final tune-up before the NorWOSSA playoffs next week, the Muskie boys’ and girls’ soccer squads each played a pair of games in Kenora this past Wednesday.
With a berth in the league final already wrapped up, the girls’ team rested Sian Donald, Anikka McTavish, and Lauren Gurski for both games in Kenora, as well as starting keeper Taylor Meyers.
Despite missing some key cogs, the squad still managed a split.
They dropped their first match against the Dryden Eagles 3-2. Katie Steams scored on a corner kick while Kelsey Quibell added the Muskies’ other goal in the tightly-contested game.
Then in their second game, the black-and-gold blanked the host Broncos 2-0 on goals by Courtney Roach and Kayla Windigo.
Emma Elliott and rookie Chelsea Hill shared the shutout in goal.
On the boys’ side, head coach Shane Beckett and his team put a lot of stock into their final two regular-season games—hoping to set the tone for the playoffs this coming Wednesday (May 28).
And that they did—first rattling off a narrow 3-2 win over the Eagles on goals by Garnet Cornell, Brendan Costin, and Mitch Cain.
Then they followed up that strong effort with a hotly-contested 0-0 draw versus the still-undefeated Kenora Broncos, but the close game was a good sign for Beckett.
“I wasn’t sure if they [Kenora] were going to come out to win or save it a little bit [for next week], but it seemed to me that they came out hard and we played really well,” he remarked.
“We had a good goal disallowed on a questionable offside call, the rule has changed this year and not all the refs seem to call it that way, but it felt like a win anyway and the guys were all really positive after,” Beckett added.