CANMORE – It took an extra 30 minutes, but the Canmore Wolverines girls soccer team got revenge at Zones against a long-time league rival.
It was a fitting end for the local high school team after splitting victories against the Holy Trinity Knights all season before clashing for bronze in Okotoks on Saturday (Oct. 15).
“Knight Time” never came in the last game of the season though as speedy striker Jewell Weighell scored twice and the Wolverines slew Holy Trinity, 2-1, in overtime, to win the team’s first medal at Zones since 2017.
Four days prior, the Knights cut down Canmore in the Foothills league championship game, winning 1-0 at Millennium Field to the chants of “What time is it? Knight Time” from visiting fans.
The stinging loss was the third of five meetings between the two teams in 2022. The teams met twice at Zones, the year-end tournament with the best team’s in central Alberta, as Canmore won 2-1 in Friday’s prelims, and again Saturday.
Although, it was the Knights drawing first blood in the all-or-nothing game, taking a 1-0 lead in the hardware match’s first 20 minutes. But Canmore punched back to tie things up after 40 minutes.
The second half went scoreless, but each team almost put the game on ice.
“Our goalie Jaime Lakusta made a huge save on a breakaway; we were hitting the posts – it was very close,” said Wolverines coach Alan Feherty.
As regulation time expired, the game went into a 30-minute overtime.
And with the biggest strike of the game, Weighell’s clutch kick gave Canmore a big 2-1 lead; however, OT was not sudden death, so the Wolverines advantage wasn’t safe until the final whistle.
“We played some top level teams and actually elevated our game,” said Feherty. “The girls took what they learned from that into the bronze game.”
In the gold medal match, the Springbank Phoenix defeated the Bow Valley Bobcats from Cochrane.
