The Duchess Park Condors earned their second-straight zone title on the soccer pitch Tuesday afternoon.
The senior girls soccer side shut out the College Heights Cougars 2-0 in the final of the north central zone double-A playdown at Rotary Field to win the championship.
"It's just awesome," said Condors head coach Carmen Murguly of the repeat performance. "We knew we were going to have some tough games especially against College Heights. It's a rivalry we've had with them for the last two to three years. They could have scored and it would've been a totally different game."
Jocelyn Forrest and Carly Shaw-MacLaren scored in the fifth and ninth minutes of the first half to stake Duchess Park to a 2-0 lead. The Condors held on to that advantage in the second half to secure the victory.
"We came out right away and played the game we wanted to play," said Murguly. "We closed the middle because that's the Cougars' strength, but we had a lot of runs and everyone played really well. We controlled the play and kept the ball on the ground."
Condors keeper Riley Brennan, a Grade 11 student, earned the shutout in net.
Despite the goal deficit, the Cougars kept pressing and attacking until the final whistle was blown.
"They [the Cougars] put in the effort and that's all you can ask for," said College Heights co-coach Sydney Hall, whose squad posted an overall tournament record of 2-2. "Overall they played really well and we had a short bench today. They left it all out there."
The zone tournament, which began Monday, was a four-team round-robin format between the Condors, Cougars, D.P. Todd Trojans and Nechako Valley secondary from Vanderhoof.
The Cougars earned a 3-0 win against the Trojans in the final round-robin match Tuesday morning to earn a spot in the final. The Condors whipped Nechako Valley 9-0 in their final round-robin game.
D.P. Todd won the bronze medal, while Nechako Valley finished fourth.
The Condors went undefeated and did not allow a goal in the four matches they played, outscoring their opposition 18-0. Brennan and Grade 9 goalkeeper Vanessa Hallson had equal time in net and shared in the shutouts.
Duchess Park now advances to the B.C. high school senior girls double-A championship, May 29-30 in Penticton.
Murguly predicts they should be ranked between No. 12 and No. 16.
"We're just going to play hard and compete," she said. "We'd like top-10 and we're going for the experience."
Single-A zones
Seven senior girls soccer squads from the north central zone are competing in the single-A zone playdowns beginning today at Rotary Field.
The three-day double-elimination tournament features teams from Burns Lake (Lakes District secondary), Fraser Lake, Vanderhoof (Northside), Fort St. James, Mackenzie and Prince George. The P.G. squads are Westside Academy and Cedars Christian School.
Lakes District battles Mackenzie today at 1:30 p.m. At 3 p.m. Fort St. James takes on Northside, while Westside tackles Cedars Christian.
Matches continue Thursday at 8:30 a.m., noon and 3:30 p.m. and Friday at 8:30 a.m. and noon.
The top two sides will qualify for the provincial championship, May 28-30 in Vancouver.
