How appropriate that the Merritt Secondary School senior girls’ soccer team calls its annual home tournament the ‘Test of Mettle’.
The host Panthers demonstrated plenty of their own grit, pluck, resolve and resiliency on the weekend in placing second in this year’s 12-team event — the best finish by any MSS squad in the tournament’s long and distinguished history.
A youthful Merritt side, with only four senior players on the roster, went a perfect 5-0 in round-robin play before falling 3-0 to Osoyoos Secondary in the championship game on Saturday afternoon at the Central Elementary School sports fields.
The Panthers got the ball rolling, so to speak, on Friday afternoon with a trio of shut-out victories over Fraser Lake (1-0), Hope (2-0) and Lake District (1-0).
The latter game finished just minutes before the skies opened up with a torrential downpour (19mm in just one hour) that also featured thunder, lightning and hail.
Saturday morning saw the Merritt team continue its impressive display of stingy defence, as the Panthers knocked off their district rivals, the Princeton Rebels, 3-0. They closed out the preliminary portion of the tournament with a thrilling 1-0 shoot-out win over Fort St. James, last year’s champions, following 40-minutes of scoreless regulation play.
Merritt’s youth and relative inexperience caught up with them in the final against a veteran Osoyoos squad that took full advantage of the windy conditions to score early and then build on its lead.
MSS senior girls’ coaches Guy Dugas and Mo Ollek were delighted with their team’s performances throughout the weekend.
“We are happy with the result, but even more pleased with the way the girls played,” said Dugas. “They were doing the right things — using space, and communicating with one another.
“We are a very young team, with mostly junior players, but I think the girls now believe that they can compete against more-senior sides, and that is huge.
“In the shoot-out against Fort St. James, all our shots were on target. The girls did not try to kill the ball. They stayed calm.
“In the final, we had some problems with Osoyoos. They are a very strong, aggressive group of girls who took control of the game in the first half. Their first touches were better than ours, and they were first on the ball more often.
“The good news, however, is that our girls never gave up. They gained a lot of good experience in the game that is going to pay off down the road.”
Dugas concluded his comments by thanking the large group of fans that attended each of his team’s games and enthusiastically cheered the Panthers on.
The MSS senior girls’ team, which is only playing a tournament schedule, has this weekend off before closing out the season with weekend tourneys in Clearwater and then Osoyoos.
