We came to King city with only eleven players – with and illness decimating our ranks! We fielded a back four of Laura and Isabelle in the center, Stephanie on the right and Ashley on the left. Midfield offered Kendra and Mika in the center with Eliza on the right and Laila on the left. Up top we had the usual suspects with Daniela and Kate, although Daniela was given double duty to support defensively in the midfield whenever we lost possession.

While there might have been some anxiety about the strength of our depleted squad, it wasn’t apparent after the kick off. Good possession and excellent passing – just like the Cougars on any other day! There was a lot of quickness to the King City midfield and backs, but their ball control was lacking. They seemed pressured to get rid of the ball too quickly, and possession was usually back to the Cougars in no time at all. They were good at getting numbers back on defense, and opportunities for the Cougars to score were few in the first half. Kendra had a shot in the 8th minute, then Eliza in the 16th. Eliza’s shot was poorly cleared, and Mika won possession. A very nice pass found Daniela open to score! 1 – 0 Cougars! Five minutes later Daniela dribbled from the outside left, beating four defenders. Just as she set to shoot she was tripped inside the penalty area. Incredibly the ref shouted “play-on” and King City cleared the ball. Just one of many poor calls from this referee. The game went into a back and forth period confined mostly to the midfield. Long balls from King City would fly over our backs, but there were no King City attackers capable of reaching them. Gen was able to scoop them up in a leisurely fashion and initiate the counter. It wasn’t until the 39th minute that we had another solid opportunity to score, this time from Kate.

The first half had flown past, with never a dull moment. The Cougars were pretty happy with the half time score – there wasn’t any real threat from King City to make inroads on our defense. We needed a little more from our young midfielders, and the half-time talk focused mostly on what they should be doing in the second half.

Clearly they took the words to heart, as the Cougars were at the KC goal and scoring within 2 minutes. A fine through ball from Kendra had Kate flying past the KC defenders to find the back of the net. Kate was trying it again in the 44th and 47th minutes, as the Cougar midfield took control of the game! Daniela had a go in the 52nd minute, then Kate’s shot in the 54th minute earned us a corner kick. The ball seemed to come in lower than planned, but it deflected off a defender at the near post and slipped in behind the goalie to make it 3 – 0!

Two minutes later Daniela’s shot hit the post! Then it was Kate driving into the penalty area only to be brought down – again the referee did nothing!

The game continued with solid Cougar control, but some great saves from the King City goalie kept the score line to 3 - 0. An excellent performance from everyone! Fielding such a young team and doing so well bodes well for next year!

GO COUGARS!