Charlottetown, PEI
Following the final game of Team Yukon’s girls’ soccer, there were tears, but they weren’t tears of joy.
With a penalty-kick goal by Yukon’s Emily Fedoriak to tie the game 1-1 midway through the second half in Friday’s game against NWT, the Yukon team looked to be on their way to their first win of the Canada Summer Games in PEI.
NWT could barely get the ball out of their half after 45 minutes. However, on a harmless looking rush by NWT’s Dana Harris, Yukon goalkeeper Nadine Poirier attempted to catch a bouncing pass in front of her net and fumbled the ball, opening the door for Harris to boot it in with three minutes left on the clock.
“It’s unfortunate, but that’s sports, I guess,” said Yukon head coach John MacPhail. “They’ll get over it.
“We did everything right, but just couldn’t get that extra goal. We outplayed them all the way through, we just couldn’t beat them.”
Despite their winless stay in PEI, the girls soccer team showed themselves to be anything but a walkover. Friday morning’s loss was actually their third one-goal loss in a row, losing 3-2 in overtime against the home team PEI on Thursday and 2-1 to Saskatchewan on Tuesday.
Yukon’s Terri Publicover produced the biggest dividends for her team at the Games, with a goal against PEI and her team’s first goal of the tournament against Saskatchewan. The other goal against PEI was scored by Katie Lowey.
The Yukon girls’ soccer team’s only one-sided battle was at the start of the Games with a 12-0 blowout loss to powerhouse Ontario on Monday.
“Our whole goal was to come here and compete - Ontario was obviously out of our league - but the other guys, we competed against them,” said MacPhail.
If there is to be redemption on the soccer pitch for the Yukon, it will come next week as the boys team takes to the field during the second week of competition at the Games.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com