Girls U13 rep team Sunshine Coast Storm started off the season with half veteran players and half new energy, making for awesome potential out of the gate.
First game of the year was a fantastic sunny day game against the Tsawwassen Blues at our home field of Kinnikinnick. Smiling and nervous, the girls were ready for anything and showed great potential right off the line.
Veteran players Paige Clucas and Clara Pashkewych were a blur in the middle and down the side, showing the Blues what was to come that day. Leela Fernandes made the middle of the field her domain early on with Ella Campbell creating a wall in the backfield.
Aila Brampton scored the first of the season with a brilliant free kick. Aila rallied the team early in the game with her patented shotgun blast right into the back of the net.
The girls put together a fantastic four-person throw-in combo: Karys Kooyman to Jasmine Fitzsimons to Clara to Faye Duffy who put it in. All that coordination resulted in a goal within 10 seconds and a new team was born.
Mary Wood and Pippa Boothroyd shared goal-keeping duties and kept the score a solid 2-1 win.
The second game sent the team over to Richmond to play the RGSA Johal on Sept. 20. Fresh off the first win the girls were simply awesome. Strong passing and team work made for a great day starting with Aila scoring again with the patented shotgun blast, followed by the incredible speed and agility of Clara putting another in the net.
Mary put her veteran skills to good use and popped another one in. Finally the wicked speed of Charlotte Thomson made the best of a loose ball to score the final goal, finishing with a solid 4-0 win.
The third game this past weekend on Sept. 27 sent our girls all the way out to play Abbotsford. After the first 15 minutes it seemed we had come a long way to be worked hard. The energy changed defiantly with Mary in goal who showed that it would take a miracle to put one past her. A scoreless first half changed amazingly when Clara demonstrated once again her true calling: speed combined with tenacity made for great soccer and our first goal of the game.
Hustling along the wings by Gracey Hemstreet made Abbotsford expel all their energy and Pippa and Ella made the back another wall not to be crossed. Koenn Sauer made a beauty into the net with her powerhouse kick after the girls frazzled Abbotsford into a loose ball with Clara instigating once again.
Mary was not going to let in anything except a miracle and Abbotsford got it with a questionable hand ball call leading to a penalty kick making it a 2-1 win by the Storm and an undefeated September.
