The FDSA Fredericton Nissan U17 Premiership Girls Wanderers defeated Codiac 1-0 to capture the New Brunswick Provincial Soccer Championships.
FDSA will now represent the Province at the upcoming Toyota National Championships being held in Fredericton October 4-9.
The win capped off an undefeated season for the Wanderers in league play. They finished the regular season with a 7-0-1 record having only conceded four goals. This earned the girls a bye into Sunday’s final against Codiac, who upset the defending provincial champions from Fundy the day before.
In the final, FDSA dominated play in the first half and despite several excellent scoring opportunities – including a strike from Ana Itoafa that rang off the inside of the post – could not find the back of the net. However, thirty seconds into the second half Eve MacDonald scored on a set play from distance, striking a powerful blast from 25 yards that would stand as the game winner. Lauren Kelly was solid in net for the Wanderers to secure the win.
In the post-game awards ceremony, Jaiden Penney was awarded Top Scorer for the league (9 goals) while Lauren Kelly and Lauren Erb were co-winners of the lowest goals against average in regular season play.
The win was a nice book-end to a season which opened with the Wanderers winning the Allt Tournament in May in Halifax, having gone undefeated in that tournament as well.
The girls open the National tournament at on October 4th at 10:00 am against British Columbia at BMO Field. Other teams in their bracket include Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
Building on their new partnership, Canada Soccer have introduced Toyota Canada as the title sponsor for the Toyota National Championships, the premier amateur soccer competition that brings together clubs from coast to coast to coast across the country.
