They were paid in gold for their comeback victory.
The Under-13A Kodiaks, a girls all-star team from the Prince George Youth Soccer Association, battled back from a 2-0 deficit and beat the Kamloops Blaze 4-3 in their last game of the KYSA Cup, held in Kamloops on the weekend. With the win, the Kodiaks finished the tournament with a 4-0 record and were handed gold medals. The Kodiaks were kicking in the event's Gold Division.
"That tournament draws from all over B.C. and Alberta so that was huge for our girls," said coach Joanne Wankling, who added that playing a ball possession style was the reason for the overall success. "Instead of booting the ball up the field and then chasing it, we played it out of the back of the field and held onto it and our finishing was awesome."
In the all-important game against the Blaze, the Kodiaks didn't keep the ball at their feet as well as they could have in the first half and fell into a 2-0 hole. In the second half, they got back to their game plan and were rewarded. Eventually, Haley Marquette scored the winning goal on a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box. After Kamloops was whistled for a tripping infraction, Marquette stepped up and blasted the ball into the top right corner of the net.
"It was something else -- it was a shot that a man would be proud of," Wankling said with a laugh.
During the tournament, the Kodiaks also recorded wins against Victoria (3-0), North Shore (2-1) and Kootenay (5-0). They played most of the weekend with only two substitutes and, because of an injury, were down to one sub for the game against the Blaze.
Other Kodiaks team members are goalkeeper Patricia Miles, Kim Hirtz, Brittany Harrington, Maddi Landrey, Morgan Norn, Sam Wankling, Cassidy Stella, Hannah Emmond, Julia Munk, Shonda Couroux, Emma Patterson and Kenzie Lamothe. Eddie Stella is the other coach.
In their previous tournament -- in Kelowna on Easter weekend -- the Kodiaks won just one of four games, so they have made tremendous progress.
"That was our first [outdoor tournament] and we've been outside on the grass now," coach Wankling said. "Now that we've put a month-and-a-half in outside, we've really improved."
The Kodiaks are now preparing for the zone playdowns, which will start on June 5 in Prince George against the PGYSA U-13B Kodiaks. Quesnel and 100 Mile House are the other zone contenders. Provincials will be in Powell River on the July long weekend.
