Holy Cross playing Jubilee season without Rivkin
New schedule begins with Feildians meeting Games team tonight at KGV
Holy Cross will carry an unbeaten record from last summer into the 2017 soccer season, but will have to do it without one of the Crusaders’ top performers from last year.
Midfielder Hannah Rivkin, the Breen’s Jubilee Trophy regular season and playoff MVP last season, won’t be returning to Holy Cross. Rivkin, who starred for Memorial University in her graduating year last season, is working in Goose Bay this summer before heading off to the University of Ottawa in the fall.
It’s a big loss, for sure, but Holy Cross still has a strong squad entering today, the first day of play in the Jubilee circuit. Feildians and the Canada Games squad get things going 6:30 this evening at King George V Park.
Holy Cross and C.B.S. Kirby United, last year’s finalists, are other two teams.
The Canada Games squad is in the league on an exhibition basis, playing a dozen games. Holy Cross, C.B.S. and Feildians each pay 16.
Under-18 teams from St. John’s and Mount Pearl played in the circuit last season, but most of those players make up the Games roster.
Holy Cross didn’t lose a game last season, winning 18 and tying one. The Crusaders beat C.B.S. Kirby 1-0 in the championship game on a goal by Rivkin.
It snapped an eight-year championship run by Kirby, which has won the provincial championship under different names.
The defending champs do have leading scorer and all-star Jessie Noseworthy back in the fold. Noseworthy actually tied for the scoring lead with Malorie Harris of C.B.S. Kirby, with 18 goals apiece.
Harris is also returning, but starts the year on the injured list.
The playoffs are set for Aug. 17, when the third-place and second-place teams will meet in the semifinal, and Aug. 19 as the first-place team takes on the semifinal winner.
Both playoff games will be at the Topsail Turf Complex in C.B.S.