Vernon Tolko United U14 girls blasted Revelstoke 10-0 in Thompson Okanagan Youth Soccer League action at Greater Vernon Athletics Park Sunday.
Goalies Summer Crosby and Janelle Barnett had few touches, being backed up by solid defense from Elizabeth Hirschkorn, Marika Ternan, Keira Korberg and Rane Smith.
Nice give-and-go passes were distributed by midfielders Mekedes Bunn, Alexi Gauvin-Nice, Lanaya Bandy, Kenzie Killingbeck and Kaia Barker.
Forwards were on the attack for most of the game. Jessica Grages and Nyla Wilford had two goals each while singles were scored by Bandy, Lina Fankhauser, Alexi Gauvin-Nice, Ternan, Sydney Wilson and Grace An.
U15 Girls
Tolko United controlled the pitch to blank Shuswap 3-0.
Brianna Bobbitt scored twice for Vernon, who were coming off a silver medal performance at a Lake Country Ice Breaker tournament Easter weekend. Sierra Folk, assisted by Mariya Blades, had the other goal for Vernon who received strong games from Jayden Strachan in midfield, Kelsey Carriere, Carly Southam, Emilia Durfeld and keeper Hailey Yablonski.
Defender Gabby Triggs helped keep United’s clean sheet by clearing a ball off the goal line.
U11 Girls
Vernon Tolko United’s two teams had four matches on the weekend, each playing twice.
Vernon H, coached by Rolf Hirschkorn and Brent Bandy, opened with a 4-2 win over Kelowna.
Joelle Kohtala, Kirsten Brown, Aimee Skinner, with the game-winner, and Jessica Bond, on a fabulous one-time shot from an Adelynn Hayes setup, scored for United. Anna Hirschkorn neatly set up a pair of the goals and Lauren Hoard and Naomi King had outstanding games for United, who also tied Shuswap 1-1.
Both teams fought hard for a goal in the first half but couldn’t beat the keepers.
Just after the re-start, Bond scored, making it 1-0. Shuswap tied the game with two minutes left.
“The girls played really well today” said coach Hirschkorn. “It’s always nice to start with a win and tie, but we still have lots of work ahead of us.”
Macy Blades played well in midfield, and Sophia Bilodeau and Clara Meyer had strong games on defence.
Vernon C split their two games, beating Revelstoke 3-1 before falling 7-3 to the Kamloops Smoke.
Kristen Francks gave Vernon a 1-0 lead against Revy on a great pass by Makenna Jackson-Hamilton. Moments later Sadie Christensen put Vernon up 2-0 on a feed by Paige Cover. Vernon had incredible goaltending from Jesse Mitchell in the first half, and Jordan Tung was a stalwart on defence.
Revelstoke scored a few minutes into the second half before Amy Curtis stole the ball from a Revelstoke defender and put the game out of reach with Vernon’s third goal.
The Smoke scored four unanswered goals before Tori Maltman put Vernon on the board with a laser beam from 15 yards out.
United played better in the second half, with great pressure from Abby Lawlor and Jordyn Clarke. Jackson-Hamilton scored a beautiful goal on a great pass by Christensen, and Kamloops responded.
Minutes later, Francks put a shot over the goalie on a perfect pass by Clarke. Great goaltending by Cover and Curtis helped keep Vernon in the game before Kamloops added a couple of late markers.
U13 Girls
Despite great chances by both teams, Vernon Tolko United and Kelowna played to a scoreless draw in the season-opening game for both teams.
Defensively, the Tolko girls were challenged in the first half but outstanding defending by Dilan Sidhu, and Claire Baycroft, meant the Kelowna team was restricted to perimeter attempts, which were handled with ease by netminder Brianna Li, who closed the door on all seven shots.
In addition, both Abigail King and Morgan Boisvert displayed an impressive set of wheels to pressure attacking Kelowna forwards, keeping Kelowna outside the box and unable to mount any threatening attack.
The second half showed an impressive offensive effort from Vernon United, who dominated possession after the break.
Good control and support on the ball in the midfield from Francesca Durfield, Emma Baycroft and Kate McIntosh, coupled with superb speed and sheer grit from both Brooklyn Routley and Jordyn Morris, led to several scoring opportunities.
U11 Boys
Five was a magic number for Vernon Tolko United Venom, who scored five goals in each weekend victory.
The Venom opened strong with a 5-2 win over Shuswap.
Mitchell Bond put one in the net two minutes in. Logan Stewart kept the pressure on and blasted a near goal off the crossbar. Shuswap responded, putting one in the Venom’s net, but Vernon continued to feed each other great passes and Jentezen Peterson took control and put one in the corner.
Braxton McDonald joined the tally with a bullet penalty kick.
Evan Sadesky donned the goalie gloves for the entire game showing lots of grit while Rowan Smith and Luca Ariano were a strong defensive line.
McDonald and Peterson each popped in another to bring the Venom to a 5-2 win.
McDonald scored twice in the first eight minutes of Game 2, helping the Venom to a 5-3 win over Revelstoke.
After Revelstoke tied the game 2-2, Hayden Murphy and Josh Mark worked together and Mark ended up slipping one more by the Revelstoke keeper. Bond and Kaden O’Connor added the final marker. Josh Donison, Matthew Hill Turner and Henry Routley used speed and great foot work to keep the ball out of the Venom danger zone and Sadesky again manned the net with great success.
Vernon U11 Tolko United Wildcat had a draw and a loss in Kelowna.
Ethan Anderson had all four United goals in a 4-4 draw against Revelstoke before the team fell 6-0 to Kamloops.
The score does not reflect Tolko’s hard work nor the fearless play of keeper Blake Beaton, who never wavered under pressure.
U12 Girls
Vernon Tolko United AIL MSE Precast Blues squad was fit to be tied.
Vernon played Kelowna C to a 1-1 draw on a late goal off a Kelowna defender from Lily Lee. Keeper Jordyn Kisilevich was solid, defenders Jaya Chauhan, Emma Glasser and Allie Maltman showed great hustle and Lee, Jorja Catt and Keira Dail created some offensive chances for Vernon.
In Game 2 Sunday, the Blue and Kelowna D played to a 2-2 tie.
Mia Maltman donned the keeper’s jersey for this game and played well, as did the defence of Kendra Grant, Ava Proctor, Brooklyn Kineshanko and Catt.
After multiple attempts by Kaiden Sherwood, Sarah Claeys was finally able to score a beautiful goal at the mid-point of the second half, running it up from mid-field.
In the dying moments of the game, Sherwood got a stunning penalty shot over a wall of five Kelowna players and in for the equalizer.
Kaitlyn Budgen and Kisilevich also put pressure on the Kelowna defenders.
U13 Boys
Vernon Tolko United U13 boys fell 5-1 to Kamloops at Greater Vernon Athletics Park.
“All of the boys played well, we just came up short today,” said Vernon coach Rick Ogasawara.
Vernon’s goal came off a free kick from Chris Reinhardt, and Dominic Peterson was able to bury the ball in the back of the net off a scramble.