First COSSA girls soccer title in 50 years for Griffins
History was made by the Thomas A. Stewart Griffins Secondary School senior girls soccer team on Wednesday.
The Griffins won the school its first COSSA girls soccer title in its 50 years after finishing as runner-up three straight years. They edged the Cobourg Collegiate Wolves 2-1 in the COSSA AAA final at Eastgate Memorial Park earning a trip to OFSAA next Thursday to Saturday in Windsor.
Griffins coach Barry Driscoll said he’s coached six Griffins teams to COSSA silver medals.
“We were talking about how we’ve been the bridesmaids for so long,” Driscoll said.
“To finally get over the hump and win the gold is a big accomplishment and says a lot about the girls. They’re such a great group and they’ve really worked hard to achieve it.”
The Griffins are undefeated this season and prior to Wednesday had not surrendered a goal against in Kawartha league and playoff games. They beat Quinte Christian High School 2-1 in semifinal play on two goals by Rebecca Bartosh. In the final, Bartosh notched the winner and Violet Hipkin had the other while Emily Deck made some big saves late in the game.
“We’ve had decent teams in the past and things haven’t gone our way,” Driscoll said. “When you add a player like Rebecca Bartosh to our already strong team everybody becomes stronger. We have Emily Deck, a Grade 9, an experienced goalie playing goal for us.
“That makes a big difference in high school because a lot of times you don’t have an experienced goalie and have to make do with what you have. The girls really gelled and we had a lot of fun.”
The Griffins beat Cobourg 5-0 in last week’s Kawartha final but Driscoll knew this would be a tougher game.
They built a 2-0 lead and were in control until the final 20 minutes when Cobourg scored and pushed hard to the final whistle. Brooke Kupke had the Wolves’ tally. They also beat Bayside, the top seed in Quinte, 7-1 in the semifinals.
“They didn’t have their full team last week so we knew they’d be tough,” Driscoll said.
“We had to be prepared. So much of it was just battling the heat. We had so many girls who didn’t play as many minutes during the year who stepped up and played big minutes today because they had to because we were hurting and tired.”
Bartosh said the girls were excited to win the school its first COSSA crown.
“We are so happy,” Bartosh said. “They have six silver medals so they are really happy to have a gold one.”
She said the girls were driven. “The redemption they wanted they finally got,” she said.
It was a tough game with the heat playing a factor.
“We had really good possession and made a lot of good offensive plays but it got really serious at the end with the 2-1 score. Anything could have happened. We were just fighting to the end,” Bartosh said.