Local Community Advertising
After a year-long wait, the Thompson Okanagan Football Club’s U16 girls have an opportunity on Sunday to avenge a playoff loss to the Fusion FC of Richmond/Vancouver.
Photo Gallery (73 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page
Upset on penalty kicks by the Fusion in quarter-final play last season, the TOFC unexpectedly will get a second chance to live up to expectations and defeat the upstart Lower Mainland representatives in post-season play when they meet in the BC Premier Cup.
The TOFC, first-place finishers in the B.C. Premier Soccer League regular season, earned a berth in the Cup final by doubling the visiting Coastal FC of Surrey 4-2 in their semifinal matchup on Sunday at Beasley Park in Lake Country. The upstart Fusion, fifth-place finishers, advanced to the U16 final by surprising the third-place Mountain United FC of Burnaby 1-0 in their weekend semi in Burnaby.
As was the case in 2018 playoffs, the TOFC — made up of the top players from throughout the Thompson Okanagan — will be the favourite going into the championship game at Cloverdale Athletic Park beginning at 10 a.m., but the last year’s experience should bode well for TOFC.
“I certainly won’t have to harp on how we can’t take anything for granted,” said TOFC head coach Carli Tingstad, whose team finished with a league-best 10-3-1 record and 13 points ahead of the Fusion (5-6-3) in the 2019 regular season of the top youth soccer league in the province. “This Fusion team always gives us problems. They’re fast, strong and athletic and we have to be prepared for a tough physical battle.”
Tingstad’s biggest concern is steadying the girls’ emotions.
“At this point in the season, we’re not going to change much of what we do on the field, but we want to focus on getting the girls mentally ready and concentrate on eliminating any negative energy and the rivalry thing,” she said. “They need to be comfortable under pressure and be confident in each other playing through it.”
Despite finishing well ahead of them in the standings, the TOFC suffered one of their three losses in the regular season to the Fusion (2-1) and played them to a 1-1 draw in late May.
“It’s going to be a close game no matter what,” offered Tingstad. “We know they’ll grind it out throughout the game and make our lives miserable . They know we like to control the ball along the ground, so they’ll press us high and try to force us into mistakes. So we have to be prepared for that and be organized in our transition game.”
Tingstad would be satisfied with a repeat of Sunday’s semifinal performance in which the TOFC dominated in all areas of the Beasley pitch against Coastal FC, coming off an upset quarter-final win over second-place Surrey United.
The hosts got off to the quick start they were looking for when a spectacular 25-yard strike by midfielder Kate Cartier of Kelowna found the top of the Coast net just six minutes into the match. But while the TOFC held a significant territorial edge, the visitors tied the score on their first shot on net.
Remaining composed, TOFC resumed its offensive prowess and took the lead again on a late first-half shot at close range from dynamo Kiera Howaniec of Kamloops.
Tingstad said she had little to say to her players at the break except to “keep doing what we’re doing.”
“We were creating opportunities, so we just needed to remain patient and be confident that we would be able to take advantage of them.”
It didn’t take long for her team to do just that as Kelowna’s Annika Gross found the top corner of the Coastal goal with a shot from a second phase of a corner kick to make it 3-1 early in the second half.
TOFC went up by three on a tap-in goal by Sydney Kolodziej of Kelowna off a cross from Jordan King who had gotten behind the Coastal back four on the right side.
Tingstad is looking forward to the showdown on Sunday, not only to make up for the team’s loss a year ago, but to represent the Thompson Okanagan club in the best possible way.
“There’s no better place to match up again against Fusion than in the championship game,” she said. “And now that we are the only team from the club (TOFC) remaining in the Premier Cup, we want to put our best foot forward while representing the soccer community in our region.”
Rounding out the TOFC roster are Sophia Clarke, Abigail Taneda, Jaidyn McGrath, Lydia Keating, Chloe Dalgarno, Paige Cates (all of Kelowna), Kiana Onyango, Ava McLennan, Kelly Kolosofski and Liesl Milovick.
In all, 12 Premier Cup championships — boys and girls from U13 to U18 in the highest level of youth soccer in the province — will be decided this weekend at Cloverdale Athletic Park.
Narrowly missing out on the opportunity to play for a provincial title were the TOFC U17 and U18 boys.
The TOFC U17 boys, fourth-place finishers, lost 2-1 on penalty kicks to first-place Surrey United in their semifinal game on Sunday while TOFC U18s dropped a 3-2 decision to Surrey United in their semifinal matchup.
Photo Gallery (73 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page
Local Community Advertising