Falcon soccer teams fall short of medals
The soccer season is over for both the men's and women's Fanshawe Falcons teams. After a disappointing showing at provincials, neither team will be competing at nationals.
Both teams had tough opening match ups against teams that became provincial champs. The women faced the Durham Lords. Fanshawe team captain and all Canadian, Emily Costello, sums up how the weekend went for the women.
“We had opportunities for the first 20 minutes of each game. We were right with them and all over them, and we just couldn't capitalize on them. They finished their opportunities and we didn't. It came back to bite us in the bum.”
The girls were no match for the strong defensive minded Lords. Durham had nine consecutive shut outs coming into this game and were able to push that streak to 10 with a convincing 3-0 win. The last time Durham was scored on was thanks to Fanshawe earlier in the year. Scoring has been a problem for the Falcons all year and it looked like they broke out of their funk in the final game of the year before provincials, scoring four in a game.
Also, heading into this tournament, the Falcons had to worry about the experience factor. Costello is one of a few players who had played at a provincial or national tournament and she believes it hurt the team.
“Not physically being tough, but mentally being tough, really weighed down on some of the players,” she said. “They didn't realize how mentally tough they had to be in this tournament. Age does have something to do with it. There wasn't enough experienced players on the team but it was a good learning curve for them because next year there will be a lot of second year players.”
The players were not the only ones with limited experience. Martin Painter was in his first year as a coach for the Falcons; however, Emily doesn't believe that they were out-coached in any games.
“Coaching had nothing to do with it. We played the right players and we were prepared for this tournament. We just didn't do what we had to do.”
After losing game one, it's tough on most teams to mentally show up for a bronze medal game. The women played in horrible conditions with rain and mud on the pitch. The game was close at half time with the host team, the Algonquin Thunders, up one nothing. However, the second half was a different situation when the Thunders scored four more for a 5-0 win. This was the last game Costello would play for the Falcons and says she has no shame in how she played.
“I gave myself everything I could, left it all on the field because I knew it was going to be my last time.”
Costello was named to the all Canadian team, and other Falcons winning awards were Sarah King and April Brethouer, who won the top goaltender award. Costello and Kristina Melhuish made the OCAA all star team.
The men also took home some hardware as well. Greg Remijn won OCAA Player of the Year and CCAA All-Canadian. He was also named to the OCAA all star team with Rudi Stipancic.
The men lost their first game 5-0 to the Algonquin Thunders and lost in overtime during the bronze medal game 2-1.
Both teams had tough opening match ups against teams that became provincial champs. The women faced the Durham Lords. Fanshawe team captain and all Canadian, Emily Costello, sums up how the weekend went for the women.
“We had opportunities for the first 20 minutes of each game. We were right with them and all over them, and we just couldn't capitalize on them. They finished their opportunities and we didn't. It came back to bite us in the bum.”
The girls were no match for the strong defensive minded Lords. Durham had nine consecutive shut outs coming into this game and were able to push that streak to 10 with a convincing 3-0 win. The last time Durham was scored on was thanks to Fanshawe earlier in the year. Scoring has been a problem for the Falcons all year and it looked like they broke out of their funk in the final game of the year before provincials, scoring four in a game.
Also, heading into this tournament, the Falcons had to worry about the experience factor. Costello is one of a few players who had played at a provincial or national tournament and she believes it hurt the team.
“Not physically being tough, but mentally being tough, really weighed down on some of the players,” she said. “They didn't realize how mentally tough they had to be in this tournament. Age does have something to do with it. There wasn't enough experienced players on the team but it was a good learning curve for them because next year there will be a lot of second year players.”
The players were not the only ones with limited experience. Martin Painter was in his first year as a coach for the Falcons; however, Emily doesn't believe that they were out-coached in any games.
“Coaching had nothing to do with it. We played the right players and we were prepared for this tournament. We just didn't do what we had to do.”
After losing game one, it's tough on most teams to mentally show up for a bronze medal game. The women played in horrible conditions with rain and mud on the pitch. The game was close at half time with the host team, the Algonquin Thunders, up one nothing. However, the second half was a different situation when the Thunders scored four more for a 5-0 win. This was the last game Costello would play for the Falcons and says she has no shame in how she played.
“I gave myself everything I could, left it all on the field because I knew it was going to be my last time.”
Costello was named to the all Canadian team, and other Falcons winning awards were Sarah King and April Brethouer, who won the top goaltender award. Costello and Kristina Melhuish made the OCAA all star team.
The men also took home some hardware as well. Greg Remijn won OCAA Player of the Year and CCAA All-Canadian. He was also named to the OCAA all star team with Rudi Stipancic.
The men lost their first game 5-0 to the Algonquin Thunders and lost in overtime during the bronze medal game 2-1.
