The PoCo Euro-Rite FC Castilians are provincial champions after defeating Prospect Lake in a 4-1 victory at the under-13 finals in Nelson last weekend.
PoCo’s Jade Lenton dominated the match, scoring a natural hat trick to put the game out of reach for the Vancouver Island opponents. Teammate Isabella Irvine added a fourth for the Castilians, who only allowed one goal in the match.
On the way to the finals, the junior team trounced their opponents, downing Quesnel 5-1, before beating up on Kootenay South in a 9-0 romp.
Terrace did a good job of containing PoCo in the semifinals, but could not find a way to put the ball past goalkeeper Mackenzie Frizzell, who was perfect in the 2-0 victory which paved the way for the final showdown against Prospect Lake.
Julia Watkins, Grace Jorgenson, Vanessa Gareau, and Rachel Lambert were impenetrable on the back line, while Hannah Gjaltema, Makayla Crenshaw, Chelan Slater and Kaitlynn Blais were dangerous on the wings.
Irvine, Kennedy Blair, Mya Thomas and Adrien Klein were tireless in the middle and Lenton and Kelsey Stewart were lethal finishers.
U14
The under-14 PoCo FC Castilians also saw some success at the provincials last week, coming up just short of winning in the finals.
The team had been rolling during round-robin play, defeated Delta 3-1, Kamloops 2-0 and Vancouver 2-0.
That set the stage for a final game against Delta, which was a tightly played affair with neither side able to gain the lead.
The game stayed at 0-0 until the refs gave Delta a penalty shot, which the club was able to bury to win the game 1-0.
The under-14 Castilians were Coastal Cup champions and only lost two games all season.
