Victoria Soccer Club – The St. Albert Skyhawks opened and closed the scoring on a championship season in Thursday’s metro Edmonton city conference final.
Jaydene Molloy rifled a shot under the crossbar in the second minute and Victoria Gull curled a cross from a sharp angle into the net with three minutes to play as the Skyhawks doubled the Austin O’Brien Crusaders 4-2 to capture the women’s soccer crown.
“This is a big deal for us. We haven’t won anything since 2001 so we’re really excited that we were able to accomplish it for our school,” Molloy told the Gazette after the post-game celebrations. “We were ready to play this game today. We came out hard and played very, very well as a team.”
The fourth soccer banner for the lady Skyhawks marked the third championship by a female sports team this year at St. Albert Catholic High School, joining the junior volleyball (city champs) and senior basketball (4A provincial gold medallists and premier conference champs) teams on the SkyDome’s wall of fame.
“It’s awesome. It’s another banner for our gym,” said Gina Bazzarelli. “What we did today means a lot because we’re so proud to represent our school.”
The entertaining affair was too close to call at two goals apiece when Bazzarelli booted the ball into the bottom right corner from short range with 21 minutes left in regulation time.
“When Gina scored our third goal that’s when everything picked back up. We started playing together again because there for a little bit we weren’t,” Molloy said.
Stationed in front of the net, Bazzarelli converted a ball from Gull with a clever move to gain open space before sliding it past the keeper.
“It was tense so getting that goal was such a relief because we had the lead again,” said Bazzarelli, 17, a Grade 11 Skyhawk who alternated between outside midfield and striker in the final.
The Crusaders evened the score in the 31st minute off a free kick and made it 2-1 with six minutes gone in the second half on some fancy footwork to finish the play off.
“Even when they scored we were still confident,” Bazzarelli said. “We just got focused again and put our heads back into it and stuck together as a team.”
As the Crusaders pressed for the equalizer they had a couple of glorious chances to score but the Skyhawks escaped with their lead intact.
The insurance marker by Gull sealed the deal with a tricky ball from the corner of the pitch that surprised the keeper. After starting the final in net, the Skyhawks’ co-captain moved up to forward in the second half to give the team an extra boost offensively as Stephanie Ziesman took over the netminding duties.
“It was a beautiful cross by Vicki,” Bazzarelli said. “At that point in the game it was a big goal to put us up by two. It was a big relief too.”
Trailing by one, Molloy cued the Skyhawks’ comeback with a long shot that rattled the crossbar and bounced down to the ground and into the back of the net with 11 minutes played in the second half.
“I just shot it. I didn’t really expect it to go in but I’m glad it did,” said the Grade 12 striker.
Molloy, 17, got the Skyhawks off to a flying start with a wind-aided blast past the startled keeper.
“It was a good ball by Emma Fraser and I just turned and shot it with my left foot,” Molloy said. “To score like that right off the bat got everybody pumped up and from there it was a pretty good all-around game.”
A couple of minutes after Molloy opened the scoring, she and Bazzarelli had ample opportunities to increase the lead. After surviving the early onslaught, the Crusaders regrouped and generated quality chances leading up to their tying marker before halftime.
The Crusaders (5-4) were a surprise opponent for the Skyhawks (7-2) after the fourth-place team in the standings knocked off the undefeated Archbishop MacDonald Marauders 2-1 in the semifinals. The second-place Skyhawks advanced to the final with a 4-0 decision over the third-place Louis St. Laurent Barons (5-3). In league play the Skyhawks defeated the Crusaders 5-3 May 13 for their third straight win to kick off the schedule. They would go on to finish with 33 goals in seven games, one less than the league-leading Marauders in the regular season.
“Right away we clicked really well as a team,” Molloy said. “Our chemistry is what helped us get this far.”
