Pacific team rallies for women’s national soccer title

The Pacific Region women’s soccer team rebounded from two opening losses to win their first Canadian Armed Forces Women’s National Soccer Championship, defeating Quebec in a penalty kicks tiebreaker.

“It took a couple of seconds for me to process the fact the game was over and we had won,” said Pacific Region coach Sgt Caleb Klimas.

“I know some of the women said they felt like they were dreaming. At the beginning of the tournament if you had told anyone that Pacific Region was going to take home the trophy, I don’t think anyone would have believed you.”

The two teams were deadlocked in a scoreless tie following two 15-minute overtime periods in the tournament final, held at CFB Borden on Sept. 15.

The Pacific team prevailed, scoring two penalty goals to the Quebec team’s single goal.

Midfielder, Capt Victoria Blakie and MBdr Kayla Ruiz, a striker, both converted their spot kicks while goalkeeper 2Lt Sam Behm made some outstanding saves throughout the match, said Sgt Klimas.

Their efforts cemented their victory and they hoisted the Capt Nichola Goddard trophy.

It wasn’t a smooth start to the tournament for the Pacific team.

The women dropped their first two matches in round robin play to Quebec and Ontario, both by identical 2-0 scores.

Shaking off the early losses, the team went undefeated over its final four matches including a 0-0 tie against the Atlantic team and a 2-1 win over the Prairie Region.

The Pacific team then defeated Ontario in the semi-finals with striker LS Jackie Boskovic’s scoring the game’s only goal early in the match.

“Our girls got better with every game,” said Sgt Klimas.

“After losing our first two [games], the team was feeling a little low, but we had two more games left and we took that opportunity with two wins and moved onto the semi-finals.”

Pacific’s 2Lt Behm was awarded the Tournament MVP award while Capt Blakie won the Pacific Region MVP award.

Peter Mallett
Staff Writer