Blue Devils show desire to win
Having surrendered a late tying goal in regulation time, the Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils never gave up on their quest to secure a first-ever B.C. triple-A senior girl’s soccer title.
Which doesn’t surprise coach Alfonso Napoletano one bit.
Forced into extra-time, the Blue Devils used a brilliant strike off a free-kick by the tournament’s most valuable player, Andrea Perrotta, just before the end of the first seven-minute extra-time half to tame defending champion Fleetwood Park Dragons 2-1 on Saturday at the University of Victoria.
“All year we’ve been talking about this,” he said, pointing to his inner arm where the word “desire” was written in pen.
“They just never gave up. Usually, when you give up a late goal like that it’s tough to fight back. But instead of putting our heads down we just look at the message on our arms [which the entire team carried],” said Napoletano, who led the Charles Best girls to their first provincial title, just as he did with the boys in 2009.
Kathryn Harvey had spotted the Blue Devils to a 1-0 first-half lead, but it was tied late.
Perrotta then stepped up to deliver the winning strike.
“I knew what corner I wanted, I just put my head down and hit it,” said the elated Grade 12 student, who found the bottom left of the goal.
“Oh my gosh, this is the best feeling ever.”
In the bronze-medal game, Montpreet Heer scored her second goal of the game to give Panorama Ridge a 2-1 victory over Elgin Park.
Heer, the golden boot trophy winner (for most goals, with seven), made a strong turn and buried the winner just minutes from the end. “Oak Bay did it to us last year so it was nice to be on the other end,” Thunder coach Kenneth Headley said, recalling last year’s bronze-medal loss to the Breakers.
“It was hard,” he said of bouncing back from a 1-0 loss to Fleetwood Park in the semifinal on Friday afternoon.
“The banquet [Friday night] was top notch. The girls had a chance to relax, had fun and it raised their spirits a little bit.”
The host, Stelly’s Stingers, lost 1-0 to McMath in the fifth-place game on Saturday and Argyle edged Island-champion Oak Bay 1-0 in penalty kicks after a scoreless regulation time for seventh place.
The Reynolds Roadrunners defeated Sir Winston Churchill 2-1 for 13th place and Burnaby North won the fair play award.