U14 Girls Silver
Ptangyangkipperbang finished the season in style with a solid 2-0 win over the North Shore Diablos. Playing their only home game since Christmas, the Squamish side came out strongly and kept the pressure up all game. Celina Wise with two good saves earned a shutout. The first goal came from a great move down the left where Courtney Robertson and Emiesha Walsh fed the ball to Samantha Mee, who made no mistake in scoring.
In the second half the midfield pushed up and were rewarded when Natalie Moffat fed the ball back to Nina Harvey, who pushed it through to Jaslyn Haberl. Jaslyn carefully placed the ball in the corner of the net giving the keeper no chance. For the season Ptangyangkipperbang has four wins, four draws and six losses.
U16 Girls
The final game of our league was played on a turf field in Port Moody. The Scorpions had only 11 players, due to injuries. The opponents had five subs. Our players "took it to them" using the words of the Port Moody coach. They passed and defended well, and were creative in their offensive drives. Lauren Hughes scored early in the first half, with an assist from Jagjot Sanghera. Danielle Dornik and Lindsey Fletcher controlled the midfield, and Alyssa Franklin played a strong game, crossing to Teeana Munro on the forward line. Our defense was led by sweeper Aislinn Merkel, and stopper Jaclyn McClements and strongly supported by Ria Temple-Hurley and Marlee Klassen. Shelby Yaky has been steady in net all season, and took a hard shot in the face for the team! Congratulations to a wonderful group of athletes. The U16 girls will be playing with their school teams until the tournaments in April and May. Thank you to managers Caron Klassen and Pam Temple-Hurley. Coaches Anne Bracey and Carmen Merkel look forward to another fun season next year.
U12 Boys
The U12 boys played in their final league game against West Van Fusion. Squamish was pumped up to play a good game in front of their home fans. Right off the starting whistle Squamish took control, passing the ball around making West Van work hard. About 15 minutes into the first half, Lynden McPhie put Squamish up 1-0 after he hustled hard to beat two defenders to the ball and put it past the keeper. It was a lot of end-to-end action, with both goalies making great saves. Lynden got his second goal when Karl Bhandal took a free kick that Chad Pereira flicked on with his head for a break away. Lynden made no mistake and put it in the back of the net. West Van pulled within one with five minutes left in the game, but Squamish held them off to win 2-1. Coach's player of the game goes to Lynden for his complete determination.
U13 Boys
The Gunners played MTS Celtic. The Gunners were short a few players with Michael Hood out; Iain Rommell and Brenton Lynn tried to play but could not continue. Jotty Sidhu was forced to play centre back with Kellie McRae and they did a wonderful job. The Gunners' ball control and passing was very nice to watch. The only goal of the game was a team effort. Austin Sweeney passed the ball up the field to Patrick McEachran. Patrick put a nice through ball up to Sunny Sanghera and he crossed a beautiful ball into the penalty box. Luke Kyle called Bryce Hurlbert off the ball and stepped up and put a picture perfect shot into the net. Player of the game was Luke Kyle. Cameron Doherty received the shutout and the MTS goalie was outstanding.
U16 Boys
Our last league game was against North Van McDaddies. (They knocked us out of the North Shore Cup last weekend.) Both teams had shortened benches, us with only two subs and them none. The only scoring in a physical first half came off the foot of Kenny Kyle at the 35-minute mark. Sixteen minutes into the second half, NV tied it up only to be answered by Jovan Sangha on a nice pass from Mike Sidhu. Kenny headed one in at 31 minutes and we thought we were safe. Not even a minute lapsed before NV went around our keeper to make it 3-2. A very tired Squamish team held on for the win, which guaranteed us second place in the league.
Next week we meet them in Burnaby for the Commonwealth Cup Final, with the winner taking home the bragging rights. Whatever the outcome, we will come home with a group of young men dedicated to their craft, who did everything possible to obtain the win. The parents and grandparents would like to thank these young men for a great season.
