Valley U-16 girls win NSSL title

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

The Valley United U-16 girls’ Tier I soccer team capped an outstanding 2008 indoor season by winning the NSSL championship March 24 in Halifax.

Top-ranked Valley edged second-place Halifax County 1-0, scoring the winning goal in the seventh round of a sudden-death shootout after the two teams had gone through regulation time and overtime scoreless.

Valley keeper Carrie Wood was perfect throughout to earn the shutout.

Valley had gone through the regular season with a 14-1-1 record, 34 goals scored and 10 goals against, to finish atop their division standings with 43 points, 11 ahead of runner-up Halifax County. Valley advanced directly to the championship final.

County earned its berth in the final with a 2-0 shutout of Dartmouth United.

Not as lucky

The Valley U-18 and U-14 girls weren’t as fortunate in their playoff matches.

The U-18 girls received a bye into the league final following a regular season that saw them finish in top spot with a 12-1-1 record, 50 goals scored and 15 goals against.

That the playoffs are a whole new season was evident in the final. Halifax County, third place finishers in the regular season, won the league title 2-1 in a shootout after Robyn McNeill had scored for Valley and Taylor Campbell for County in regulation time.

Halifax County had advanced to the final with a 2-0 victory over Dartmouth United.

The Valley U-14 girls, after a third-place finish in the regular season, met Halifax County in their division semi-final. County won 1-0 in regulation time, ending Valley’s season.

“We lost a heartbreaker,” said head coach Dwight MacLeod, who suggested the match was “great experience and something to build on for next year” for his young team.

There were three top teams in the U-14 girls’ division this season, he said: Valley, County and Scotia. “We played County twice (in the regular season). They were all over us and we ended up winning 2-1, and we were all over them and ended up losing 2-1.”

The Valley U-14 boys and U-18 boys, both first-place finishers in the regular season, were scheduled to play for their league titles Monday evening in Halifax.

The U-14 boys played Scotia, the regular season runners-up, while the U-18 boys met City 18s, regular season runners-up in their division. In semi-final action, Scotia edged Mahone Bay 3-2 in U-14 while City 18s defeated Halifax County 2-1 in U-18.