Tier 1 champions
The St. Albert Impact 4 (Murphy) team saved its best for last at the Alberta Soccer Association Tier 1 women’s championship in Calgary.Monday’s final against Pinnacle FC was decided on Brittany Kindzierski’s seventh goal of the tournament in the first half of extra time for the 2-1 Impact victory.
The match was scoreless until Kindzierski gave the Impact the lead early in the second half and the Calgary squad pulled even late in regulation time.
Kindzierski was the top division 1A scorer in the Edmonton District Soccer Association with 23 goals and recorded three of the Impact’s goals in the 5-4 EDSA Tier 1 playdown win over division 1B Wind United.
Early in the second half of extra half, play was stopped during a 30-minute lightning delay and the last 11 minutes the Impact kept its 2-1 lead intact.
“It was a great game with both teams very deserving of being in the gold-medal game,” said head coach Brian Murphy.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team picture.
The Impact finished the four-team provincials at 3-1 (14 GF/5 GA) and Pinnacle was 2-2 (13 GF/6 GA).
Taylor Blight was in net for all four matches despite suffering a quad injury in Friday’s 3-1 tournament opener against Pinnacle.
“She was fantastic all weekend as were all players. We would have never got to the gold game without having the deep bench that we did. All 18 players contributed significantly to the weekend success,” Murphy said.
Shyanne Walton, Gracie Hausch and Kindzierski supplied the goals in the first win against Pinnacle.
Shelby Oshust was the scorer in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to FC Excelsior (11-2-1, 41 GF/17 GA), who finished two points ahead of the Impact (10-2-2, 63 GF/22 GA) in the EDSA division 1A table.
The Impact caught fire offensively in Sunday’s 8-1 drubbing of CJSC (0-4, 2 GF/19 GA) of Calgary as Kindzierski struck four times, Walton tallied three goals and Hausch also connected.
In the bronze-medal playoff, Excelsior (3-1, 5 GF/4 GA) blanked CJSC 2-0.
Two years ago, Murphy’s Impact team won Tier 1 provincials with a different line than this year’s gold medallists.
Premier silver
The St. Albert Impact 1 (Spaidal) team lost four matches this season and three were against Northwest United, including a pair at the Alberta Soccer Association premier women’s championship.The scores were 3-1 in Friday’s round-robin opener and 1-0 in Monday’s final at Calgary.
In the premier fixtures of the Edmonton District Soccer Association, the Impact (15-2-1, 66 GF/18 GA) fell 3-0 on June 5 and settled for a 1-1 draw Aug. 7 against Northwest United (15-0-3, 62 GF/8 GA).
In the last EDSA match against Northwest United, the Impact missed a penalty shot on the last play with first place on the line. A win by the Impact would have clinched a spot in the challenge playdown for Alberta Major Soccer League status in the 2019 outdoor season.
At provincials, the Impact finished 2-2 (6 GF/6GA) and Northwest United was 4-0 (10 GF/3 GA).
The Impact results included a pair of wins against Calgary teams: 2-1 versus Villains FC Panthers (0-3-1, 7 GF/12 GF) and 3-1 over Blizzard United (1-2-1, 7 GF/9 GA).
Sheena Tracey, the Impact’s top scorer in the EDSA with 12 goals, was the team leader at provincials with three. Jazmyne Mauthe potted two and Danica Blasius also scored.
Tier 3 Impact
The first Impact Alumni win at the Tier 3 provincials was the last match of the tournament for the St. Albert Men’s Soccer League team.Mateus De Sa, Scott Lysenko and Lake Bossert scored in Sunday’s 3-0 decision against Calisia (0-3, 1 GF/14 GA) in the pool one fixtures at ESA Complex.
Calisia was the first-place (11-1-2, 46 GF/16 GA) division 3C team in the Edmonton District Soccer Association.
The Impact (1-2, 4 GF/6 GA) also suffered losses of 4-0 to Lakeland (3-1, 14 GF/5 GA) Friday and 2-1 to the West Hills United Aliens (4-0, 15 GF/3 GA) of Calgary on Saturday as Rampa Lenge scored the lone goal.
In the medal playoffs, the Aliens won gold and Lakeland took home bronze.
The Impact qualified as first of two SAMSL reps at provincials with a first-place 8-1-6 (51 GF/21 GA) record.
In the SAMSL playoffs, a win Thursday against Lads FC in the group A round robin would secure a berth in the two-game aggregate semifinals on Sunday and Tuesday at Riel Park. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. at Salisbury Field.
Tier 3 Rangers
The only goal in back-to-back Tier 3 provincial appearances by the Forest Park Rangers was scored by Luke Harrison in Friday’s tournament opener at ESA Complex.The 1-1 tie with Miyagis FC (0-1-2, 2 GF/5 GA) of Calgary was followed by 2-0 losses to Nations FC (2-2, 7 GF/9 GA) Saturday and Northside United (2-1-1, 8 GF/5 GA) Sunday in the pool two fixtures.
Northside United, the first-place (12-2, 43 GF/24 GA) Tier 4 Duru division team in the Edmonton District Soccer Association, was awarded silver and Nations FC, the top division 3D (12-1-1, 69 GF/10 GA) EDSA team, finished fourth.
Forest Park, the Tier 3 Fair Play Award winner at provincials, was scoreless at last year’s provincials in Calgary while going 0-3.
This year’s provincial lineup was fortified by players from other SAMSL teams, including Justin (Melo) Melton, a noted offensive threat with the DV Youngmen who filled in for Forest Park goalkeeper Matt Bergin in the loss to Nations FC when Bergin was unavailable for the match.
Forest Park was the SAMSL’s second rep at provincials after placing second at 8-4-3 (45 GF/16 GA) in the regular season.
The defending SAMSL playoff cup champions must win Thursday’s group B playoff match against Magnitude FC for a semifinal berth. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. at Salisbury Field.
