Grand River girls are champions again
Third straight WCSSAA win for Renegades, while Huron Heights senior boys claim first title
Megan Todtz and Lilly Cote both wondered whether they’d be playing for a championship-calibre team this spring.
Those doubts were emphatically put to rest at Schlegel Park on Thursday afternoon when the Grand River Renegades scored a 6-2 win over the scrappy Glenview Park Panthers to win their third consecutive Waterloo County (WCSSAA) girls’ soccer title.
Twins Rylea and Tayler Schade scored two goals apiece for Grand River, and Ashlynn Renner and Mary Hilker added singles. Grace Van Wyngaarden and Mahi Patel scored for Glenview Park, which trailed 4-1 at halftime.
Both teams advance to Central Western Ontario (CWOSSA) tournaments next week — Grand River to the triple-A event in Kitchener and Glenview Park to the double-A competition in Brantford.
Todtz and Cote are holdovers from Grand River’s last championship team in 2019 and two of only three Grade 12 players — Hilker is the other — on the current squad.
COVID restrictions meant players on this year’s team didn’t know much about each other during tryouts and that made the team’s captains, Todtz and Cote, wonder what the team was capable of accomplishing.
“I had my doubts, but we connected during the first practice, we became close friends and we worked hard,” said Todtz. “After the first game, I knew we were going to be right here.”
Cote said players doing what’s best for the team and lining up in positions they might not be accustomed to was a huge factor in the Renegades’ success. “It was a little questionable at first because we had so many forwards and not a lot of defence, so players had to make sacrifices and play in positions where they really didn’t want to play and it worked.”
Grand River finished the regular season with a 4-0-2 won-lost-tied record and had playoff wins over the Preston Panthers and KCI Raiders.
While the question at Grand River was whether the team would be able to repeat as champs, the question at Glenview Park was whether there would even be a team.
Only 12 players showed up for the first day of tryouts, and Panthers head coach Alex Fisher wondered whether there was enough interest to continue.
Veteran players such as Machin Chau, Keyana Mullings and Van Wyngaarden stepped forward and recruited other girls to play, some with no previous footy experience, and the team started the season with modest expectations that were easily surpassed.
“It’s been amazing and I can’t believe we’ve come this far, from having just 12 players at that first practice,” said Fisher.
“They’re all wonderful and get along so well. There’s not a bad apple on this team.”
Glenview Park players demonstrated their connection during a first-half play when Kaelyn Douglas prevented a Grand River goal by heading the ball out of touch as it was about to cross the goal-line. Her teammates surrounded her and a celebration ensued as if they had just scored a goal, not prevented one.
“They are just so delighted to be here,” said Fisher.
Glenview Park rebounded from an 8-1 drubbing by KCI in its opening game of the season and finished at 4-2-0.
They scored playoff wins over Waterloo-Oxford, which had a 5-1-0 record at the time, and the Huron Heights Huskies.
Huskies capture senior boys’ final
Later Thursday, at Schlegel Park, Ashwyn Lambert scored twice and the Huron Heights Huskies won their first WCSSAA senior boys’ title with a 4-0 victory over Grand River.
David Toma and Jayden Menjivar added singles markers for the Huskies and Mehmet Tutak recorded the shutout.
Both teams advance to next week’s CWOSSA triple-A championship.