Three NL team play for soccer gold today

Three from Newfoundland and Labrador will play in gold-medal games today at Atlantic age-group soccer championships in the Maritimes.

And a fourth came, oh, so close.

In Moncton, N.B. Newfoundland’s boys under-15 and under-16 sides are in championship games after posting unbeaten records in preliminary-round play. The U15s have won all three of their games so far, including a 3-0 shutout of Prince Edward Island on Monday in what was a preview of today’s final.

The NL U16 are 2-0-1 following Monday’s 2-1 victory over P.E.I., setting up a championship game against Nova Scotia today.

In Halifax, Newfoundland’s under-15 girls will face host Nova Scotia for gold today after finishing with a 2-0-1 round-robin record, including a 3-0 victory over New Brunswick Monday. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia had played to a 2-2 tie in their preliminary-round meeting.

The heartache came for the NL under-16 girls, who missed getting to the goldmedal game by being on the wrong side of a tiebreaker. Newfoundland finished 1-1-1, the same as P.E.I., but the latter advanced to the final having won the teams’ head-to-head meeting and also having a better goal differential.

That means Newfoundland will take on New Brunswick, which it beat 2-0 on Monday, in a match to decide third place.