The Williams Lake Storm, an under-13 and under-14 rep girls soccer team, wrapped up its season on a winning note over the weekend, thundering away from the 14th Annual Little Bear Soccer Tournament in Revelstoke as champions.
The Storm met the Kootenay South rockets, winners of the tournament’s ‘B’ pool, in the final.
The Rockets opened the scoring first but Storm player Morgan Schofield answered back with a goal prior to half time to tie the game at 1-1.
With adrenaline flowing and tension mounting among players, parents and coaches, Williams Lake’s Kanisha Manhas, after a beautiful display of teamwork and patience, found the back of the net to put the Storm up by a goal.
A short time later the Rockets fired back with a hard blow to Storm goalie Morgan Moore, who took the shot off her abdomen and went down but made a crucial save to keep her team up by one.
At the 20 minute mark, with 10 minutes remaining, Schofield, again, found the twine to increase the Storm’s lead to two.
Storm coaches said the final 10 minutes were the longest of the season, but were thrilled when the final whistle blew and the reality of winning the tournament and bringing home the gold medal sunk in.
The girls’ route to the final began with a match against the Columbia Valley Titans of Invermere.
Storm goalie Moore managed a shutout in the team’s first win while Kara Zurak was the first Williams Lake player to find the back of the net within the first two minutes to kick off the scoring.
Also scoring for the Storm in the game were Cheyanne Stuart, Kanisha Manhas, Ashley Straza, Jasmine Baye, Khyla McMurchy and Schofield in the 7-0 win.
Next, the Storm met the Calgary Blizzard Spurs Saturday afternoon in an intense game from start to finish.
The Storm, after a goal from Melissa Styran, entered the second half tied at 1-1 until Baye, in the last three minutes, scored the game-winning goal for the Storm, landing the team in the gold medal match.
Storm coaches Beth Moore, Brenda Mann and Paul Magnuson added a big thanks is in order to all the players and parents for a phenomenal season, and to the Williams Lake Stampeders for kindly providing a bus to transport the team to and from the tournament.