Surrounded by a bunch of old friends on a new team, Connie Ratkaj took care of some unfinished business on the soccer field Wednesday.
She booted away the hopes of Brotto Holdings winning the Prince George Women's Soccer Association Group One playoff championship.
On a warm sunny night at Michelle Lamarche Field, Ratkaj's second-half pop produced two goals that helped Mountain Air Kettle Corn harvest its first playoff title, a 4-0 win over Brotto.
The Kettle crew saved its best for last, having finished fifth in the regular season, one game above .500 with a 10-9-1 record.
"I think the best way to go into the playoffs is to go in without those expectations you're going to come out on top, just go in and work hard," said Mountain Air forward Jen Payne, whose team of 14 struggled to field a full lineup on most game nights.
"Building up to this, I don't think we've had a sub for three-quarters of the season. We know how we play and it just took a bit of time to get to know where each other is going [on the field] and what everybody's doing and it all worked out."
The game was scoreless until the 20-minute mark of the first half when Payne's centring pass into a high-traffic area deflected off the outside of the foot of Brotto midfielder Kristina Martin. The own-goal was a sign of frustrating game ahead of Brotto, which finished second in the league with a 15-5-0 record.
Not long after Merissa Wong just missed an opportunity to tie it from close range, Amber Cunningham spied the black jersey of Keira Cosh making a beeline for the net. Cosh got to the long ball before Brotto goalie Angela Prince could pounce on it and had nothing but net to shoot at for a 2-0 lead with nine minutes gone in the second half.
Prince got into trouble again a few minutes later when Tanya Lenza delivered a strike deep into the crease. The goalie's bobble left an easy tap-in for Ratkaj, who added to the total late in the game to cap the scoring.
The playoff champs are the remnants of the successful Croatia team of the 1990s. The core of that team -- Payne, Ratkaj, Cunningham, Cindy Mueller (who earned the shutout Wednesday), and Michelle Robbestad -- reunited on the field this year.
"We all split up and had babies and this is our first year with most of us back," said Rakaj. "Playoffs mean more that regular season right now and it was good because Brotto's a new team too and the two new teams in the league were in the final.".
Mountain Air knocked off Sigma Tile 2-1 in the first round, then scored the upset of the playoffs, a 3-1 win over top-ranked Accelerated Physiotherapy, the 16-2-2 regular season champions.
"I'm quite proud of the way they played this year," said Mountain Air coach Tien Mueller. "They had fun and they won, and they didn't expect to do that."
While the final was a bitter ending for Brotto, 3-0 winners semifinal winners over Chan Foucher Lefebvre, Martin, another former Croatia player, said there were many successes to celebrate.
"We played really well together and really progressed and it's always upsetting to end the season like this, but I think we surprised a lot of people because we really gelled well together," said Martin. "Both teams played aggressive and sometimes they were more hungry than we were, but there were good shots on both sides. They did play hard and beat us to a lot of the balls and sometimes that extra effort shows in the end."
