The Immaculata Mustangs of Kelowna made it four in a row Saturday at the single-A girls high school soccer provincial championship.
Kate Johnson led the way with two goals in a 3-0 win over the Southridge Storm of Surrey in the championship game at Rotary Field.
Johnson, a Grade 11 striker, is the last in a line of four sisters who have all helped the Mustangs bring home provincial banners. Her unbridled speed and dogged determination to maintain ball control led to nine goals in five games as the tournament's top scorer.
Ashlyn Day opened the scoring three minutes into the game, roofing a shot from 25 yards out into the net behind Storm goalie Fiona Firby. The Mustangs caught a break in the first minute of the second half when Firby rushed out of her crease to chase down a loose ball and allowed it to trickle through her legs, just as Johnson arrived on the scene to boot it into the net. Johnson capped the scoring at the 72-minute mark, launching a high rainbow that found the top corner.
The Mustangs, with a rookie netminder, allowed just two goals in five games in the tournament. Nicole Hart, a six-foot-two basketball player, started playing high school soccer this year and she emerged as one of the top goalies in the 16-team tournament. Laurel Judson had the best chance of the game for Southridge with a shot from 15 yards out, 62 minutes in, but Hart got her shin in the way to make the save.
The real tower of strength on the Mustangs' back line was fullback Stephanie McCann, the tournament MVP, whose attention to detail on defence proved a nightmare for Southridge forwards.
"It's crazy to win this because coming into this year we lost a lot of strong seniors and we didn't have any high expectations here, so to knock off teams like Southridge, Credo, and Glenlyon and then win it for a fourth year in a row is insane," said the Grade 12 veteran McCann.
"I think our greatest strength this year was our defence. We were terrified coming into the final, to be honest, but that first early goal from Ashlyn was a blessing, just to say we can do this."
Immaculata lost 10 forwards to graduation last year but still found a way to keep their provincial title string intact.
"I think this team has belief in themselves that when we get to provincials they can do anything – it's a totally new team but they still had that belief in themselves," said Mustangs coach Paul Freire. "We lost the Okanagan this year to Osoyoos in a semifinal in a shootout, so coming in here they were motivated to get it done."
In the bronze-medal game, the Credo Christian Kodiaks of Langley defeated their crosstown rivals, the Langley Christian Lightning, 1-0 on a goal from Kari Stam. Katie Togeretz notched the shutout in the Kodiaks nets.
The Lakes District Lakers of Burns Lake finished eighth, their highest-ever placing at the provincial tournament. After losing their opening game, 7-0 to Credo Christian, Lakers coach Bob Mills said his team hit the reset button and played its best soccer of the season the rest of the way. The Lakers twice erased deficits to tie Osoyoos, the Okanagan zone champions, 3-3, then beat Nakusp 1-0 in a 10-round shootout to place second in their pool. In the playoff round the Lakers lost 4-0 to Glenlyon-Norfolk and 3-1 to St. Andrews.
"This was sort of a miracle tournament for us, we lost our first game 7-0 and it was looking like we'd maybe finish in the bottom three and suddenly we started pulling it together step by step," said Mills. "The whole tournament was just a dream come true. They're a young team, three-quarters of them are Grade 9, and every single game we had a better showing."
The north central zone-champion Fort St. James Falcons finished 12th, after losing Saturday 3-0 to Osoyoos. The Northside Christian North Stars of Vanderhoof placed 14th in their first-ever provincial appearance, losing their final game 3-2 to Queen Charlotte.
