Sabres stifle Vortex in girls’ AA final

The Sandwich Sabres brought an abrupt end to the Vista Academy Vortex’s hopes for an unbeaten season on Tuesday.

A smothering defensive effort by the Sabres kept the high-scoring Vortex off the scoreboard and Sandwich went on to take the WECSSAA girls’ AA soccer title with a 2-0 win at McHugh Park. “We’ve been in the finals of WECSSAA for three or four years and have yet to win, so we wanted to put it all on the field and try our hardest,” said Sandwich centre defender Alessandra Pontoni, whose team won its first title since 2003. Playing in Tier II, Vista Academy went 8-0 during the regular season and won both playoff games heading into the final while outscoring its opponents 44-4.

“We saw their stats,” Pontoni said. “You think, that’s going to be a hard game. We know some of their players and how aggressive, strong and fast they are and they’re great at shooting.”

Sandwich put more speed to the wings and didn’t hesitate to collapse back at every chance to thwart the Vortex, who went to four forwards at times.

“I knew that I had to keep a good gap and not stay too tight because they could go around quickly and support my teammates,” said fivefoot-10 Kira Juodikis, who moved from striker to midfield and back to stopper at times.

A young Vista Academy team seemed frustrated at times by the bigger and more experienced Sandwich squad.

“Half our team is juniors and we only have two seniors,” said Vortex 15-year-old forward Sophia Vidinovski, who is in Grade 9. “They were on us.

“I think they’re just older and more aggressive. Trying to break that down with a bunch of juniors is hard, but it’s a hardworking group of girls and I know we tried our hardest to do that.” Ancika Quimby played a nice through-ball to Juodikis and she got a step on her defender and scored to put the Sabres on the board 10 minutes into the game. “That was a big deal,” the 17-yearold Pontoni said. “You don’t want to be behind. You want to be comfortable and play your game.” Time and again Vista Academy’s offence was turned away by a wall of Sabres on defence, and the few times the Vortex could create a chance, Sandwich goalie Chloe Dender was there to deny the opportunity.

“We had to work on shutting them down and limiting their shots,” said Pontoni, whose team allowed just 12 goals in 10 games this season while playing up in Tier I in the regular season. “The game plan was we didn’t want to focus on them. Our game plan was to play hard and aggressive.” Juodikis got free in the middle 15 minutes into the second half and notched her second of the game to put Sandwich in control. “We worked our hardest and went undefeated until now, but I know our girls have three more years ahead of us and we’re building a strong team,” Vidinovski said.