It’s a bittersweet finale for the Oak Bay Bays soccer team, but the girls will take it.
The Bays won the Ryan Cup as city champions with a 3-0 win over the Lambrick Park Lions on Tuesday.
Scoring for Oak Bay were Megan Kivvel, Sanja Dodos and Shannon Bennett.
The win ends a tough run for Oak Bay, which lost the bronze medal game to Belmont, 2-1, at the AAA Island championships in Campbell River last week.
The loss kept the Bays out of the upcoming AAA provincial finals, May 29 to June 2 at Fleetwood Park in Surrey. Yet here in town, the Bays have earned a second Ryan Cup trophy in as many years, including a semifinal defeat of the reigning AAA provincial champions Claremont Spartans.
The Bays also gave Lambrick its first loss of the season.
“It’s our second trophy in a row so we’re happy with that but we’d like to have represented the city at provincials,” said Bays captain Elise Butler.
The Grade 11 student is the backbone of the Bays defence, and was part of the Bays 2011 Ryan Cup win over the Glenlyon Norfolk Gryphons as a Grade 10 student. As one of the premier soccer players in her age group, Butler played with the Gorge FC premier women this winter season and is currently with the Peninsula Co-op women’s prospects team in the Pacific Coast Soccer League.
One of Lambrick’s better scoring chances, a blast from Emma Emzinger, never made it to the net. It careened off Butler’s head instead.
“We contained (Lambrick) well and shut down their offence,” Butler said. She also admitted Maddie Secco’s absence hurt the team, especially in the Island tournament. Secco, a Grade 12 player, couldn’t play due to commitments with Canada’s senior national women’s team.
“Maddie’s our top scorer and a difference maker, but we came together today anyways,” Butler said.
Coaching Lambrick Park is Melissa Orton, a 2009 grad who came to the team three weeks ago with fellow grad Lauren Goodmanson.
Orton and Goodmanson took over last month. Then Goodmanson, whose sister Sheridan is a Grade 12 player with the Lions, skipped town with the travel bug, Orton was left holding the clipboard on her own.
“We were a little short on the bench, missing one player and dealing with an injury, but we just never clicked (in the Ryan Cup),” Orton said.
“We’ve had it good this season but Oak Bay wanted it more (Tuesday). It’s good though, it prepares us for the higher-calibre teams we’ll face at provincials.”
The AA girls soccer provincials are May 31 to June 2 in Kamloops.