St. James soccer girls advance to OFSAA AA tourney
BRANTFORD – The St. James Lions qualified for the Ontario high school OFSAA provincial AA girls’ soccer championship tournament by winning the regional CWOSSA title Thursday.
The Lions needed overtime to edge Brantford’s North Park Trojans 2-1 in the CWOSSA final.
St. James reached the final by defeating the D4 champion Westside Thunder of Orangeville 3-1 in the semifinals while North Park nipped Sacred Heart Crusaders of Walkerton 1-0 in penalty kicks, North Park winning the shootout 4-3.
The Lions finished atop their pool after the preliminary round as they scored three shutout victories – 3-0 over Simcoe Sabres, 2-0 over North Park and 2-0 over St. Mary’s Mustangs of Owen Sound.
The OFSAA tournament is set for June 2 to 4 at Bradford.
The Lions are looking to be the first Guelph school to take the provincial honours since the Bishop Macdonell Celtics won it in 2014 when it was held in Collingwood.
St. James won the provincial A/AA title in both 1996 when it was held in Pembroke and 1994 when it was held in Guelph.
AAA Girls Soccer
The Ross Royals reached the final of the tournament at Kitchener, but fell 3-1 to the St. Mary’s Eagles of Kitchener.
Leah Van Milligen scored the goal for Ross.
Both semifinals earlier in the day finished with 2-1 results as Ross edged the St. John’s Green Eagles of Brantford and St. Mary’s slipped by the Grand River Renegades of Kitchener.
Brook Hoyer and Nim Sandha had the goals for the Royals.
Ross scored a pair of shutout victories in preliminary play on the first day of the two-day tournament as the Royals downed Grand River 3-0 and Owen Sound DSS Wolves 9-0.
Hoyer, Emma Mussell and Greta Waller tallied against Grand River while eight players scored against Owen Sound – Mussell with two and Charlie Capper, Hoyer, Lila Martin, Maddie Ryan, Sandhu, Van Milligen and Gillian Spaggett.
A Girls’ Soccer
The Emmanuel Christian Eagles of Fergus reached the final of the tournament at Delhi, but were defeated 5-1 by the Pere Rene-de-Galinee Knights of Cambridge.
The championship-game combatants had scored shutout victories in the semifinals as Emmanuel Christian got by the Kincardine Knights 3-0 and Pere Rene de Galinee disposed of the Waterford Wolves 5-0.
The Eagles had a win and a tie to finish atop their pool in the preliminary round on the opening day of the tournament.
Hanna Vansydenborgh scored in a 1-0 win over the Walkerton Riverhawks and Channell Brawer had the goal in a 1-1 tie with Waterford.
- Guelph Sports Journal