The Port Hardy Secondary School (PHSS) Junior girls soccer team had an early departure down island to play at Highland Secondary in Comox in the 2016 Junior Girls North Island Soccer Championships.
The championships were held on Thursday, May 5 and Friday, May 6. Three games were scheduled to qualify for playoffs to be held on Friday afternoon. There were two pools of teams that participated. PHSS was part of Pool A which also included Dover Bay Secondary School, Ballenas Secondary School, and Cahiri Secondary School.
The girls played a competitive game against Ballenas which resulted in a 3-3 tie. The next game was against Cahiri which ended with a 4 – 0 win. The last game played was against Dover in which the girls came out strong in the first half. The final score of the game was a 2-2 tie.
After playing three games, PHSS was in a three way tie for first place in Pool A. This prompted a long discussion between the head referee and the organizer of the championships. Scores of all the games played by three teams were looked at and it was determined that PHSS was one point short away from qualify for second place.
Only the top two teams advance further towards provincials. PHSS placed third in the Pool A to play Mark Isfeld from Pool B. The girls finished the season with a 3-1 loss to Isfeld to a sixth place finish. This is an improvement to their eighth place finish from last year.
The girls had a great season with five wins and one loss in regular season play. The team has improved a great deal since last season. This is largely due to the dedication and commitment of the coaches in developing and fine tuning the girls’ skills and abilities. Next year will be even better as the girls continue to develop their soccer skills. Thanks to Scott Harris, Jim Clair, Angela Clair and Shelley Wilson for making this a great season for our junior girls.