The St. Albert Impact celebrated their Alberta Soccer Association Tier 3 championship in style Monday at Calgary.
Jacey Carroll’s 19th goal of the season with seven minutes remaining in the second overtime period against the Chinook Rogues of Calgary was pure gold for the division 3A women’s team in the Edmonton District Soccer Association.
Carroll received a chip shot from striker Kyla Ambealt, ran past the Chinook defenders, dragged the goalkeeper to the right and then the right-footed striker drove the ball with her left foot to the bottom of the left corner of the net for the go-ahead goal in the 3-2 thriller.
Head coach M-J Carroll described the last seven minutes of the final as high intensity, back and forth soccer.
“The ref’s whistle to end the game was the best sound ever,” she said. “It was truly a team effort. All of our ladies ran their socks off and played hard. (Coach) Scott Ponich and myself are very proud of them and the fantastic season we’ve had. It was a great finish for our season.”
The Impact ended the outdoor campaign at 17-1-1 overall after placing first in the EDSA division 3A table at 13-1.
“They just play as a team. We have really good morale and the girls are very positive with each other,” said coach Carroll. “There are a lot of senior players on the team that are almost coaching as well and being very positive with the younger girls. Everything is just positive with the team.”
The Impact amassed 77 goals in 19 matches and allowed only 16 against after going 2-0-1 (five GF/three GA) at provincials.
“These are all skilled girls. They have drive and work as a team. They’re just very motivated. They want to do well and they have the skill to do well so it was very rewarding coaching them because they don’t need a whole lot of coaching, just fine tuning I guess you could say,” said coach Carroll. “They’re also not selfish. They pass it and that’s how we were able to do so well all season.”
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the Impact’s championship picture.
In the final, goalkeeper Nicole Schlemko “stood on her head” to put the Impact in position to win gold.
“She was fantastic. I don’t know how many times she sprinted out and did the sliding kick out. It was amazing. She kept us in the game for sure,” said coach Carroll.
The Impact opened the scoring in the 15th minute on a free kick by Amber Cuthbert, a back, and striker Mobieka Lindo took the ball high off her chest and midfielder Lindsay Riege rushed to the net with it from the back door.
Ten minutes later, midfielder Cat Turner took a corner kick and Riege rushed the net from the back door again and scored with the one touch.
With four minutes left in the half the Chinooks scored with a through ball between defenders.
The Chinook, the No. 1 Calgary team at provincials, pulled even five minutes into the second half with another through ball that split the Impact’s back line.
The Impact were later awarded a penalty kick when Melanie Seidel was taken down in the box on a scoring opportunity but the Impact striker pushed it wide of the net.
The physical affair resulted in at least seven Impact injures and in the last 10 minutes of regulation time the team had players in positions they didn’t normally play. The Impact took 21 players of various ages to Calgary and 20 dressed for the final.
“They were exhausted. Some girls weren’t able to finish the game because their injuries were so bad,” said coach Carroll, who is also in charge of the Impact U18 Tier 3 females. “We were able to pull up players when we were short and that helped us the whole season. There were six players that we always pulled up from my U18 team and when we went into provincials we brought six players as well for it.
“It’s not like these girls have played for the same team for numerous years over and over again. Basically there were nine girls from the core team that was the original team and everybody else. We had a roster of 25 and everybody else was just put into it and for them to be able to mesh and play together and do so well it’s really awesome because you don’t get that very often. A lot of time everybody plays for themselves.”
The first 15 minutes of overtime went faster than expected for the Impact.
“We really didn’t want it to go to shootout because nobody likes shootouts, which is a lot pressure,” said coach Carroll. “It was just a nailbitting finish. Calgary is an awesome team but the girls worked so hard. They never gave up.”
The Impact kicked off provincials Friday night in the pouring rain and bitter cold against the Calgary Royals. Kat Bonnycastle made it 1-0 with a big lob shot from just over the halfway line that went over the goalkeeper’s head 12 minutes into the second half. The Royals tied it 10 minutes later and with nine minutes to play Turner took a corner kick and it deflected off one of the Royals and into the net.
Sunday night the Impact and Riverbend Ruckus battled to a scoreless draw. Ailbhe Muldoon started in net but was injured in the 10th minute and was replaced by Schlemko, who played against the Royals.
In the EDSA playdowns to determine the first and second teams at provincials the Impact beat Riverbend, a division 3B team, 4-1.
The Impact are the second St. Albert team in a row to win Tier 3 honors. Last year’s champion, Mavericks 09 from the St. Albert Women’s Soccer League, finished fourth overall in Calgary after losing 1-0 to the Royals for bronze. The winning goal was scored in the 86th minute.
The Mavericks kicked off provincials with a 3-1 win over the Calgary Storm in a snowstorm late Friday night. Suzanne Schulz tallied twice and Heidi Voogd also scored.
The next match the Mavericks suffered their first loss after 35 straight wins since the 2013 SAWSL division one final, 1-0 to the Chinook, on a suspect penalty in the 58th minute.
