A banner season for the St. Albert Impact women in the Edmonton District Soccer Association will culminate with a trip to provincials in Calgary.
The division 1B and 2A Impact teams booked their spots at the Labour Day weekend tournaments during the EDSA playdowns after first-place finishes in league play for promotions next year.
“Our goal going to provincials is gold and nothing else,” declared Brian Murphy, head coach of the Impact teams.
The division 1B Impact march into provincials with a workmanlike 9-3-4 (49 GF/13 GA) record after blanking Angels Scottish SC (12-1-2, 49 GF/16 GA), the top division 1A team, 2-0 in Saturday’s Tier I provincial qualifier at the ESA Complex.
“It was an interesting situation for this team this year. It was a couple of different groups that had to come together because we’ve expanded our program and a lot of the girls hadn’t played together before. There were new faces and different groups of people that came in, all quality soccer players, but it doesn’t always work because chemistry in a team game is huge but as the season went on we developed the chemistry. We even commented today on the bench that this is the most together we’ve ever seen this team being a team and that’s why the success came,” Murphy said.
The division 1B team will also join the fourth-place Impact premier women (11-7, 35 GF/22 GA) in next year’s outdoor premier season.
“It’s a nice finish for the girls. It sort of put an exclamation point on the whole thing that they do belong up another level,” Murphy said. “A lot of players here have played premier in the past and they really didn’t want to play division one this year and now they’re back where they feel they belong so now it’s up to them to prove it as well.”
The Impact program has also acquired another team in premier for their U18 players advancing into women’s soccer.
“We’ve used them as trialists (with the Impact teams in EDSA) so we get a few a game,” Murphy said of the Impact pipeline. “That’s kind of why Terrie (Wispinski, the assistant coach) and I put in the effort to try and build up the program because we know it’s coming. We’ve got a ton of great talent coming up behind us and we knew that if we didn’t work to make this program stronger we wouldn’t be able to keep those kids in our program because they’re going to go where the best level is.
“The goal for Terrie and I is to have a major league team within a year. That’s what we’re shooting for and I think we’re going to get there.”
The division 2A Impact (14-3-1, 66 GF/19 GA) claimed the second EDSA berth at Tier II provincials in Sunday’s 2-0 decision against FC Excelsior (11-3-2, 61 GF/10 GA), the second-place division 2B team.
Maria Czyz and Kate Searle scored and Miranda Klein posted the shutout at the ESA Complex.
Last week the Impact fell 3-2 to the Edmonton Warriors (13-1, 69 GF/21 GA), the division 2B leaders, in 30 minutes of extra time to determine the first EDSA berth at provincials. It was 1-1 at the half and 2-2 at full time. Karen Vriens and Kelsey Carter potted goals for the injury-plagued Impact.
“The only reason we didn’t win that game is because we were down to seven healthy bodies by the end,” Murphy said.
The division 2A side has ties to last year’s Tier III provincial champion Impact team (17-1-1, 77 GF/16 GA) that was promoted after a 13-1 division 3A campaign.
Melanie Seidel, a division 3A player last year, led all division 2A scores with 13 goals.
“Out of that team maybe five girls are left,” Murphy said. “Most of the rest of the girls are my division one girls that I’ve coached for a long time so that group (division 2A) the team chemistry is fantastic. It’s a real solid group that played together really well.”
The division 1B Impact have also meshed together like a well-oiled machine and that cohesiveness was on display against Angels Scottish.
“We worked as a team and we put all we had out on the field,” said striker Chelsea Fitzgerald. “We played our hardest and honestly and any team out there we would’ve beat today, especially in this heat.
“It was definitely one of our better performances this year.”
Fitzgerald, 19, got the offence rolling in the fifth minute with her 13th goal of the season. Diligent footwork with the ball by Hallee Peter allowed Fitzgerald to tee it up from outside the box.
“I just took the ball, turned it, faced the net, cut and shot it past the goalie,” said the top division 1B goal-getter with 12, three more than Peter, the second-highest scorer.
“Cutting and putting down defenders and showing them their spot on the field is just on the ground,” said Fitzgerald of her goal-scoring exploits.
A well-placed strike by Brittany Boe in the 28th minute put the Impact up by two on a play orchestrated by Caitlyn Seguin.
The Impact dominated field position and ball possession in the first half and during the last 45 minutes defended their lead with solid defence, anchored by goalkeeper Mikayla Ferreira.
On tap next is Tier I provincials.
“It’s awesome. Our team definitely deserves to be there. We made it this far all together as a team playing the best we could and I hope that we do good,” Fitzgerald said. “We were definitely one of the better div one teams in league and to get promoted to premier is really exciting too.”
It all starts in practice, added Fitzgerald, the recipient of the 2015/16 most improved player award with the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves in her rookie season in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.
“The faults that we had in a game we run over them in practice so that we can work on them in the next game. We kind of solve our faults that way by looking at one thing and then moving on to the next issue,” said the Spruce Grove product in her sixth season with the Impact youth and women’s program.
