Angels Sixth at Bridgman

The tournament actually opened against a fellow AA team, St Michael’s University School. The younger SMUS team was full of energy and came out strong against us. Thankfully, some excellent defending in our own 23 thwarted the early possession dominance that SMUS maintained. Once our nerves calmed, though, the game shifted to the centre of the pitch and chances started to come for us. Predictably, Allison Kuzyk ’20 was the first to break through to score. On a lovely individual effort, she sliced through the D and rocketed a backhand that the SMUS goalie deftly pushed aside. Allison would not be denied though and took her next good chance to score and put us up 1-0. The second goal was more vintage LFA: after some good work by Mimi Wallace ’20 and Sam Zastre ’20 up the left side, our central midfield of Mikayla Stelling ’21 and Gracie Korac ’20 controlled the ball nicely to feed Allison up front. With defenders converging, Allison slipped a pass to space and a flying Alexa Dodds ’20, who calmly one-timed the ball into the net. The possession advantage was now all LFA as we hemmed them in. Still, SMUS had a good counter attack and managed to break through for a short corner, which they were able to convert on a rebound. Up 2-1 and in control, a late short corner of our own was nicely executed by LFA: Allison hammered the ball at the right post for a beautiful deflection by Charlie Kan ’22. It was an important goal as it served for the extra point in the pool standings, which would prove crucial the next day.

LFA next matched up against late-entry Claremont. A fairly new field hockey program, they were in tough against us on the water-base hockey turf at UVic. From beginning to end, the we dominated the play. It was also a bit of a break-through for our defenders willingness to move the ball laterally. Ava MacFarlane ’20 looked excellent in the middle as a distributor. Mimi, Francesca Yep ’20 and Maddy Luft ’20 moved the ball around wonderfully: quick and accurate. It created buckets of space in the midfield and allowed our forwards to make decisive leads, which we found aplenty. Of the six goals we scored, Allison’s drag flick was special. That said, the Claremont keeper’s save on her second attempt was full value and worth special mention. The other goal that was particularly beautiful was Mimi’s late goal: playing up-field from her usual spot on defense, she urgently hunted down a ball on the left side of the D. Spinning quickly, she saw the Claremont defender closing down her space and she unleashed an off-speed shot the goalie failed to anticipate. The keeper lunged forward, as the ball moved towards the net. It was difficult to see among the spray of water as goalie and defender desperately tried to stop the ball, but one thing is for certain: the ball had enough momentum to carry itself over the goal line for Mimi’s first of the year. Mimi may have giggled as part of a muted celebration that followed. Nevertheless, a good win that kept LFA in contention for top spot in the pool.

The third pool game saw LFA match up against familiar Bridgman foe and top AAA team Cowichan. With belief from a good result at the UBC Tournament, LFA went in confident… and, yet, stumbled out of the gates again. Cowichan applied pressure and the ball seemed to fall to their best players’ sticks. Among the early flurry of attack, Allison caught a stick on the chin during a follow through and had to leave the game to get stitched up. Playing without Allison pushed responsibility to others on the pitch and the team universally stepped up to the occasion. Mikayla and Gracie ran miles in the centre of the pitch and created all sorts of good opportunities. Maya Pasut ’21 was called into action as our centre-forward and did an admirable job playing sound defensively and creating some lovely opportunities going forward. Stephanie Non ’20 and Sam were brilliant as our outside halves, playing stalwart hockey. When Cowichan did break through, Ava, Franky, Mimi and Maddy were decisive and tenacious. The player of the game though, was Hanna McGee ’20 in our net. Because of the incredible work ethic in front of her, Hannah was only forced to make a couple of really tough saves, but it was her challenging and ball control which snuffed out opportunities before they escalated. In the end, it was a 60 yard run by Cowichan’s strongest player that was the first break-through in the game, putting them up by one with a hard tomahawk through traffic that Hannah had no chance to see. With only about 6 minutes left, it could have been demoralizing, but Gracie and Mikayla somehow upped their pace. With three minutes to go, Gracie spotted a free hit, took it quickly and we broke out. The ball moved outside and quickly to Charlie, who one-timed it back in, eliminating a Cowichan defender and giving us numbers charging forward. The ball was forwarded on to Catherine Blouin ’21 who was in full flight. Looking for an inside pass, she recognized the defender bite and she broke into the D alone. Catherine calmly looked up at the charging goalie and pushed a perfect shot just inside the left post of the net to draw us even. It was an ecstatic moment, resulting from some lovely team hockey. Cowichan, who needed to win to finish at the top of the group, piled on the pressure but Franky and Ava in particular took over at the back. In the end, Ava’s solid decision to take the ball to the corner finished the time as we earned the draw and top spot in our pool.

The cross-over pitted us against Oak Bay, who field a couple of elite players and a strong, well organized team. Yet again, we stumbled out of the gates. A defensive lapse and a quick goal put them up 1-0. A phantom call earned Oak Bay a flick shortly after, on the back of some sustained pressure forward. Hannah nearly had it, but we were down 2-0 and reeling. It took us until the 10 minute mark to fully right the ship, but once we did, the pressure started to go the other way. By the end of the half, we were surging forward. Mikayla had a lovely chance with a defender draped over her and chopping away at her stick that didn’t get off. Allison narrowly missed on a hard hit from a short corner. The second half saw more LFA attack. Oak Bay were extremely good in defending our attack and had good counter attack at times, but the incredible effort of our forward line really caused them fits. Brooke Hamilton-Wong ’21 had a lovely cut inside that was only held back by a cynical foot-foul. She very nearly broke through on a break-away as well. Alexa, Catherine, Charlie and Alexa Mezzarobba ’21 ran so hard to contain the Oak Bay swings and did so with wonderful success. Our best chance fell to Allison, who combined with Mikayla to create space and hit the top of the D, instantly releasing a sizzling hit labeled for the corner. A great save by the Oak Bay keeper kept the score 2-0. The final few minutes played back and forth as we took more risks to move forward. In this quarter final, it wasn’t our game and LFA would settle for the 5 to 9 placement bracket.

For the 5-9 cross-over, we found ourselves playing early Sunday morning and back on the rubber soccer turf. Lining up against another traditional AAA powerhouse in South Delta. Our complete control of the central midfield, even on the rubber turf, was always going to make it tough for SDSS. Mikayla, Allison and Gracie controlled the midfield and we got some really influential minutes from Franky on the right half, as we looked at moving around some personnel. Maya got another run up front and looked good. Maddy and Steph returned to a familiar role from their last season on defense and were really reliable throughout. Allison, once again, demonstrated why she is a difference maker. Two beautiful goals had us confident to move through, while Mikayla’s quick backhand sweep was exclamation mark on a really solid game of hockey. 3-0 was a well-deserved score-line against a very good team.

The team wrapped the tournament back on the waterbase turf. They looked a little spent and you could sense that for all the hard work they were putting in, it wasn’t going to go for them. Another slow start and again they were down. Still, the game had some highlights. Among them was a simply stunning run by Alexis, who picked up a tough bouncing ball, deked the first defender, got a second to bite and then drove into the D and found the last defender’s foot to get us a corner. Hailey Krueger ’21 had several transition plays go through her on the left half that created some fine opportunities for our wingers. After having worked hard to get into a scoring spot on the left side of the keeper, Hailey very nearly had her first goal as the ball came across and she took a good sweep at the ball only to see it deflect off the keeper and slide just wide. Later, on a corner, Allison found the back of the net on a hard hit to bring the score to 1-3. Charlie had some great runs along the right side and Catherine nearly broke free a few times. It would not be enough though. Despite some tenacious running, our timing just seemed a little off and against a good team, that was too much. The game ended 5-1 for Cowichan.

The Oak Bay quarter finals will be the one that got away. Our Angels were full value against the eventual Bridgman winners. Sixth at a prestigious tournament like Bridgman is no slouch and the girls will return to league play and our Zone Championships with their game more developed. Onwards to the Provincial Championships, which will take them back to Victoria for November 6, 7 and 8.