CHARLOTTETOWN – Penalty kicks were both a friend and an enemy for a local entry in the under-13 girls Atlantic club soccer championship.
The Prince County squad returned from the four-day tournament with the silver medal, following a heart-breaking loss to Nova Scotia’s Suburban FC in penalty kicks in the championship game, played at UPEI.
“This team has been only playing together for a little more than a month on the larger field and 11 versus 11,” said Prince County head coach Blair Murphy. “For them to take the final to penalty kicks certainly indicates they are right there with anyone.”
Prince County knew a tough challenge was ahead in the final as Suburban FC displayed a potent offence in posting convincing wins earlier in the tournament. The final was scoreless after both regulation time and overtime, thanks in large part to an outstanding performance by Prince County keeper Maddy MacPherson.
“All the girls bought into the system of play that was out in front of them,” said Prince County assistant coach DJ Welton. “They should be very proud of their accomplishment. . . We certainly are.”
Tiebreaker
Prince County completed round-robin play 1-0-2 (won-lost-tied), tied with Halifax County in points. When all the tiebreaking formulas were accounted, both teams were still dead even. It was decided to break the tie by penalty kicks on Sunday before the bronze-medal game. The winner would advance to the championship while the non-winning team would play for the bronze medal.
This time, the outcome in penalty kicks would end up in Prince County’s favour. The teams were still tied after each team took five kicks, and it took seven shooters to determine Prince County as the winner. Skyla Jeffery, Amelia Murphy, Olivia James, Lana Gillis and Aaliyah MacDonald scored for Prince County while MacPherson was winning keeper.
Round robin
In the round robin, Prince County opened with a 2-1 win over St. John’s SC, and then played back-to-back scoreless games against Halifax County and New Brunswick’s Codiac team.
After Prince County fell behind St. John’s 1-0, Jeffery tied the game and Kristyn Taylor scored the winning goal off a corner kick by Gillis.
