By Adam Harnum
Star Staff Writer
CORNER BROOK There is no doubt the Corner Brook Molson Women’s Soccer League’s two-time defending champion Bud Light Shamrocks were coming into Monday evenings do-or-die match against the Under-16s with their sights set on winning to clinch their birth into the playoffs.
That’s exactly what they accomplished, downing their younger counterparts 5-0.
The Shamrocks’ Jen Solo led her team in scoring with two goals. Karen Pottie, Heather Carey and Taylor Hamlyn chipped in with single markers.
“They played really well and didn’t give up.. they fought until the end,” Solo said of the U-16s final game of the season.
Danielle Carey, one of the U-16s youngest players, said her team tried their best in the game but claimed the experience of the Shamrocks got the better of them in the game.
“They had a couple strong strikers who just kept putting the ball in the back of the net everytime,” said the 14-year-old Carey.
The loss means that the U-16s are no longer able to compete in the playoffs, but Carey and her team understood prior to the game that there was a good chance it would be their last game, so their mentality going into the game was to “try their best.”
The Shamrocks are now set to take on Veitch Physio in the first round of the playoffs — a team which Solo and some of her teammates are all too familiar with after a battle in last season’s final against them.
“If we play harder then we can do better than we have been doing,” said the Shamrocks striker.
Solo said her team is comprised of several new players this season — which she figures could have factored into the team’s slow start to the season.
But she said the recent “clicking” as a team could be a recipe for success in the playoffs.
“We’re finally coming together as a team, as you can see (from the game),” she added.
Other action
In other action on the night, the Steers Insurance Curling Rangers downed the Under-18s 3-1 in a close match that saw the more experienced Rangers pull through late in the second half.
Hannah Connolly opened and closed the scoring for the Rangers.
Shelly Drover scored the go-head goal at the 75-minute mark.
The U-18s lone goal scorer was Jade Regular.
