2010 Sr. Girls Secondary School Soccer

[Captain Shamrock]

Parkhead Bhoy, your zone is the toughest to get out of with only two berths most of the time.......North Shore/Burnaby is definitely the toughest. Our zone has the most teams and some years it is VERY difficult but this year was easier as I mentioned. I'm looking forward to playing a little 'Walter Smith Anti-Football' to try and slow things down. It will be our only hope. I'm guessing Derek Possee has never coached against the Cookie Monster and Elmo before. I remember watching him play for the Whitecaps.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Well, another Provincials has come and gone and I couldn't have been happier with the way our kids played throughout the tournament. Despite playing with a grade 8 in net the entire tournament, we competed against all the big guns and did very well. Well done to the Devils who will lose a total of 1 starter for next year.

Burnaby Central 0 South Delta 0 - Burnaby Central started very strong against us but we had planned for that sort of thing and played very conservatively with a 4 - 5 - 1. They had two central midfielders who couldn't stop fouling and hit the crossbar from a shot from long range and one girl missed the goal on another chance she probably should have buried...but as the half went on, we started gaining more confidence and started to slowly start to take over. The second half was all Devils as Burnaby Central did not have a shot on target and we managed to create two decent chances. Great start with Elmo and Cookie Monster thrilled with the start

Claremont 2 South Delta 0 - Our girls started very well and I was content that we had a legitimate chance to stay close with Claremont....however, our little grade 8 goalie had a moment she would really like back as she dropped a routine cross into the goal...that was about 10 minutes into the game. We battle on but created very little and also gave away very little. Claremont had quite a bit more pace than us but we were able to keep them shooting from distance at best. In the second half, we went to a 3 - 3 - 4 knowing that we needed to win the game to have a chance at first place. They scored with about 10 minutes to go in the half on an offside goal. It was a terrible miss from the 92 year-old assistant but that didn't matter as we were struggling to create any good chances. In the first half, we should have had a penalty...which the ref decided to chicken our and move the ball outside the box although it was clearly in....their coach said it was in afterwards but that's life when you have the same NINE refs doing the ENTIRE tounament. Shocking. We looked more fatigued than Claremont which was probably because of the fact they had to play Prince George in the morning game beating them 5 - 0. So our chance of getting out of our pool was gone but we had no expectations of this to be fair.


South Delta 4 Prince George 0 - Girls came out very strong against a noticeably weaker opponent from the first two days. We were up 2 - 0 early. We knew a 4 - 0 win and a 2 - 0 Burnaby Central loss would give us second place. Claremont destroyed Burnaby Central 4 - 0, mainly because it looked like Burnaby Central weren't ready for the 8:30 start. We proceeded to score two more goals in the second half......goal of the tournament by one of the girls. I haven't seen a free-kick like that in a lot of years.....and a clinical header off of a set piece. So we finished 2nd in the pool and we were not guaranteed our 10th top 8 in finish in 12 tries over the years.

South Delta 1 Point Grey 1 (PK win) - We played very well against Point Grey and managed to rebound from an early goal.....it was the only goal we gave up which wasn't a direct mistake by an particular player....we were then awarded a penalty kick before the end of the first half. We had the wind against us in the second half but we continued to play some quality football....we just lacked, like all season, any pace up front to expose backlines. Hopefully that will come as the girls become a bit stronger physically.

South Delta 1 Elgin Park 2 - Elgin were up 2 - 0 after about 10 minutes.....again a mistake by our goalie on a blooping shot. This goalie was another gr. 8 who was filling in for our other gr. 8 who was sick. She did a great job overall. Then our center midfielder decided it would be a good idea to play the ball across the backline right to Jenna Richardson, who is one of the best around......and she went in and scored on a breakaway. Half finished 2- 0 but I was very happy with our attempts to continue to play and battle. The second half was very productive for us in terms of possession and we were finally rewarded with a goal about 3 minutes from time on a corner kick, which was scored directly from the corner as the keeper wasn't able to keep it out. So it was a positive game for the Devils.....and of course the usual tears afterwards because another season was done. I am happy the girls figured out what it takes to compete against better teams and hope it will help them next year when they're a year older.

Claremont, for what it is worth, went on to win the tournament defeating Argyle in penalties in the final. So we were in the pool with the Provincial champions again......that's the 4th time in the last 9 years that has happened to us...but we competed very well. Well done to the Devils and now it is time to start getting ready for the Boys season in September. The girls next year will be going for their 10th straight appearance which would be a record for any school so it will be another great challenge to try and get there.

Well done, Devils. I also want to mention that we were really fortunate to get all 19 players into every game but it is amazing how much it means to a kid to even get into a game for 5 minutes......

 

[Ballbaby]

Great job again Stephen. Definitely know how to get the most out of your players. See you at Surrey United next year.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Looking forward to it, Spiro.