For roughly 55 minutes on Tuesday afternoon, the Ryan Cup final looked like it was going to be a David and Goliath story at the University of Victoria.
David’s rubber band, on that fabled slingshot, snapped, however, and the Goliath-like Oak Bay Breakers recorded a 2-1 win over the St. Michaels University School Blue Jags in the senior girls’ city soccer final.
Down 1-0 on an own goal in the 18th minute of play, the Breakers pressed hard in the second half and used goals from Janessa Lane in the 56th and 59th minutes to pull out the win for the triple-A school, over the double-A opponent.
“What a battle. We put ourselves in a bit of a hole with the own goal, but what a game,” said Breakers coach Brent Garraway. “It was nice to see the girls had the maturity — we’ve been talking about that all year to be able to regroup and settle down.
“SMUS turned it into an all-out war, which was perfect for both teams before we go to Islands,” added Garraway, who was preaching patience at the half along with his assistant coaches Katie Hanson and Elise Butler.
“Everybody just take a breath. It’s hard for a lot of girls who haven’t played in a game for a trophy before,” he said of his message. “You get overly excited and it was nice to see the girls take that breath at halftime and come out and play in the second half.”
Lane’s corner kick curled straight in to tie it at 1-1 and Lane was at it again moments later, in the right lane to deposit a rebound after goalie SMUS Anna Mollenhauer made a fabulous diving save to her right off Karakostas to keep the Blue Jags’ hopes alive.
It wasn’t meant to be on this day as the scrappy SMUS team got caught in a very defensive second half.
“I think we were out-matched against a team like that, no question, and we’re going to be on our heels defending the whole game,” said SMUS coach Nikki Kaufmann, whose team also lost 2-1 to Oak Bay in the UVic tournament earlier this season. “We battled as best we could on the day.
“They out-matched us in a lot of areas, but I’m proud of the way the girls battled and competed and that bodes really well for us moving forward into Islands next week. We’re a little double-A school, which probably had no business being here in the first place,” Kaufmann said.
“Not to say we didn’t earn or deserve to be here. We absolutely did, but we knew it was going to be a tough battle. I guess it could have gone either way. In the end, they had a better second half and took advantage of their opportunities.”
She was right about that with Lane finishing it off.
“It was an amazing feeling seeing it [the rebound] come at me and just being able to see the future for the game. It raises your spirits,” Lane said of the winning goal.
“When you have the support of your team and you’re able to calm down and trust, it makes you more confident and makes you want to finish it for them and for yourself.”
And she made no mistake with it.
Oak Bay will travel to Dover Bay in Nanaimo for the triple-A Island finals on Monday and Tuesday, while SMUS hosts the double-A Island tournament the same two days.
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CORRECTION: The Oak Bay Breakers’ first goal in Tuesday’s Ryan Cup soccer game final was scored by Janessa Lane. Lane scored both goals in the victory.
