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First place in the regular season and home-field advantage in the playoffs will be on the line when the Mt. Boucherie Bears play host to the Kelowna Owls on Monday in Okanagan Valley senior AAA girls soccer play at Const. Neil Bruce Middle School.
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Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowMt. Boucherie's Dakota Fanning, centre, battles OKM's Melaina Corrado, left, and Devon Felts.In what is shaping up as a preview of the league championship and a battle for the Valley’s lone zone berth at the B.C. School Sports provincial tournament in Surrey later this month, the Bears and Owls enter Monday’s game (4 p.m.) with 4-0 records in regular-season play.
Boucherie goes into the top-rung showdown after an 8-0 waltz by the Rutland Voodoos on Wednesday while the Owls earned their fourth straight win on Monday by defeating the Okanagan Mission Huskies 3-1 at Kelowna Secondary School.
Alyssa Rogall scored twice and helped set up a goal by Ally Seefeldt to pace the Bear’s offence in the lopsided win over the winless Voodoos, who had dropped a 4-0 decision to KSS in their first game of the season.
Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowLili Young, right, of Boucherie and the Huskies' Paige Payer follows up on a Bears shot on netAbigail Taneda and Kyleigh Oloriz (off a penalty kick) put Boucherie up 2-0 in the first half while Selina Arima, Bianca Panagos and Hailey Tait added tallies to go along with those by Rogall and Seefeldt in the second.
A week earlier, the Bears scored both their goals in a dominating second half to defeat OKM 2-0 at CNB. Oloriz headed in the winning goal 13 minutes into the final frame off a corner kick by Annabelle Perry while Haley Olsson notched the insurance marker off a pass from Arima with three minutes remaining in the match.
Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowThe Owls kept pace with the Bears with their win over the Huskies on Monday. Sade Mailett tallied twice for KSS while Nicole Torozan rounded out the hosts’ scoring on a penalty kick in the 54th minute. Olivia Kalashnakoff earned the goalkeeping victory.
Meanwhile, in tournament play last week, the Owls went undefeated in four games to capture the KSS/Immaculata Invitational title.
Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowAmy Drew of OKM gets set to cradle a throw-in in front of Boucherie's Ellie Good.The Owls capped the perfect run by defeating the Immaculata Mustangs 3-0 in the final. Brooklyn Michalkow’s two goals led the KSS offence and Mailett scored once, with Kalashnikoff recording the shutout.
Both the Bears and Owls have earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs which begin on Wednesday and will see their first playoff action on May 13 when they take on the winners of quarter-final play involving the third- and sixth-place finishers and the fourth- and fifth-place finishers.
The Valley title match is scheduled for May 15, with the winners representing the zone at the BCSS provincial championship tournament at Fleetwood Park in Surrey May 30-June 1.
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Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowAbigail Taneda, left, watches as her shot sails toward the OKM net.
Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowOKM's Sammi Krupka, left, and the Bears' Jessica Skerlec chase down a loose ball.
Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowGrace Loo of OKM and Jaidyn McGrath of Boucherie.
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