Stampeders strike OFSAA gold again

   Parkside wins second girls' AA soccer title in three years, capping undefeated season

   beating Niagara Falls St. Mike's, 3-2, in penalty kicks, in the OFSAA final

Saturday June 9, 2018

By Rob J. Ross 

TECUMSEH, ON. - For the second time in three years, the Parkside Stampeders are OFSAA AA girls' soccer champions.

Presley Gruener potted the decisive penalty kick, while keeper Aviva Fournie made a big stop, to lift the Parkside Stampeders over the St. Mike's Mustangs, from Niagara Falls, 3-2 (4-3), in penalty kicks, to win the gold medal game, at L'Essor high school.

The OFSAA championship caps a near perfect campaign for the Stampeders, who won 23 games and tied one.  Two years ago, the Stampeders won their school's first ever OFSAA championship in girls' soccer, beating Carine Wilson secondary school from Ottawa, 1-0, in the final.

"It's such an amazing experience. It's really awesome that we won. It was an all-around great season and we went undefeated," said Fournie, who stoned St. Mikes' first kicker, thrilling her teammates and combined with Taylor Goodhue hitting her mark, gave Parkside the upper hand.

"When it's just me against another player, there's a lot of pressure, but it's not the first penalty kick I've been in. It was really nice on the first one that I got it right (predicting where the kicker was aiming for) and made a pretty good save. That really hyped up the atmosphere for myself."

Parkside's Tiffany Johnston and Marin Williams also found mesh, but St. Mike's final three kickers scored, leaving it for Gruener, to prevent the teams from moving into extra kicks.

"Actually it was calm. I was like I'm going to get it. I felt super confident," said Gruener, who now owns two gold medals.

Fournie sympathized with her St. Mike's counterpart.

"I said to the other goalie before, it's an awful way to win or lose, but obviously I'm glad that we won."

St. Mike's opened the scoring 12 minutes into the first half. Petra Salin tied the game five minutes later, before giving Parkside a 2-1 lead, in the opening minutes of the second half. The Mustangs knotted the affair at two, with five minutes remaining in regulation time.

Overtime solved nothing, leading to penalty kicks.

Parkside out shot St. Mike's in the game. The Stampeders had two glorious opportunities for the go ahead goal in the second half and two more in overtime. Either the Mustangs' keeper made a five bell save, or the kick had too much mustard on it, sending the ball over the net.

Fournie had the TSN highlight of the night save, in the first half of overtime, leaping up to knock the ball over the cross bar.

"Our passing is really good and we know how to work the ball around and we get good shots off," said Salin, who seemed to stir the Stampeder offence.

Salin's speed, foot work and aggressiveness gave the Mustangs fits attempting to defend her. The grade nine forward had a knack of finding ways to move the ball towards the net. On a number of occasions, Salin left her defenders behind, helplessly dazed lying on the ground.

Salin led Parkside with six goals over six games at the tournament. Johnston, Goodhue and Halle Szabo, had four each.

The Stampeders faced some adversity but the team's depth really showed, after losing players to injury, throughout the tournament including the final. Captain Kaitlin Ellery suffered a leg injury in the second half and couldn't finish the game.

"It was hard to watch. I wish I was out there, but I'm glad that everyone experienced this. It's my second time (winning gold) and it feels just as good," said Ellery. "Everyone played their hearts outs."

Johnston was another Parkside force up front.

"It hasn't sunk in yet. It's really surreal. My last year at Parkside and there couldn't be a better way to finish it off," said Johnston. "Everyone works so hard. That's what I find from our team. Even if there might be a team that is more talented or skilled, we work harder."

After scoring the go ahead goal, in Parkside's 2-1 win over the Corpus Christi Longhorns, from Burlington, in the semifinals, Johnston went to work setting up shop in a corner of the Longhorns' end.

 "It's one of my favourite things," laughs Johnston, of the tactic to kill the clock late when leading in a close game. "I love having pressure on me and I've always been I guess muscular, so holding them off, gets me pumped."

The Longhorns usually needed at least three players attempting to pry the ball away from Johnston. On one occasion, five Longhorns were within five feet of Johnston.

Stampeder Ashley Watson also scored in the semifinal.

Parkside coaches Gerry Safadi and Curtis Langley have now guided the team to OFSAA gold twice.

"I said to the girls two years ago was incredible. I didn't think we could top that. These girls played some really tough competition (two tournaments, played Stoney Creek Cardinal Newman and London Lucas, third and fourth respectively at OFSAA AAA) and we didn't lose a game," said Safadi. "The girls played so well. We overcame some injuries. Kendra (Hulst) gets hurt. Katie Ellery gets hurt. We have injuries that the kids fought through. We had a couple of chances to really close out the game, but missed, but we fought through it. Aviva made a great save during PKs and during the game too."

"You have to really good and you have to be lucky to pull this off."

Parkside possesses depth, skill and a system that continues to led them to OFSAA, now five years running.

"We were solid everyone. It's hard to beat us because we're so good everywhere. We could score. We could defend. Some teams are only so deep. We played our 22 players against (Burlington) Notre Dame and we outplayed them. The depth of our team is unbelievable," said Safadi, who credits the players for the OFSAA victory.

"These girls have played a lot of soccer and they are used to the situations. To them, it's just go play. We're lucky. These girls are really talented and are very determined and work really hard. Curtis and I just put them into a system and figured out where to play them. After that, it was them. There was nothing to say. They knew what to do. They had it figured out."

Parkside opened the OFSAA tournament blanking Waterloo St. David, 4-0 and Peterborough Holy Cross, 5-0, without allowing a shot on their net.

On day two, the Stampeders dumped LaSalle Sandwich, 4-1 and tied Burlington Notre Dame at one. In the quarterfinals, Parkside brushed aside Mississauga Clarkson, 5-0, led by a hat trick from Salin.

A year ago, Parkside were the OFSAA consolation winners. The Stampeders lost two games in pool play, their only losses of the season, to the gold (Burlington Notre Dame) and bronze medal (Guelph Bishop Macdonell) winning teams.

Parkside has won gold in 2016 and 2018 and lost to the team that won the title in the year between. The Stampeders failed to advance from pool play during their first two years of their current five year run at OFSAA. No doubt the Stampeders will be OFSAA contenders again in 2019.