Bulldogs open with victory
The Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs girls soccer team began defence of its Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association AA title Monday with a 1-0 victory over the visiting Eden Flyers.
The Bulldogs’ lone score came off the foot of Izabella Peeler while Kate Smyth bounced two shots off the cross bar, including one on a penalty kick.
“We played well,” Churchill head coach Henry Allan said. “I really enjoyed the way they were playing. It was the first game of the season and obviously there were some nerves and jitters and we are missing a couple of girls that we had on the team last year.”
It is actually more than a couple as last year’s Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations bronze medalists are down five eligible players. Those players are part of a travel team going to Italy and they are not allowed to compete in high school soccer.
“We had to add some new girls to the team so we are getting our feet wet,” Allan said.
He likes what he sees from his roster.
“We have lots of good attacking players and we are going to try and create overloads in the offensive end and get them on the ball.”
Allan is confident his squad can get back to OFSAA.
“I think we have the team to do it. We have potentially talked about going further but you obviously have to play the games.”
The team is going to do what it can to make that happen.
“I see the commitment and drive from the girls. They have all been to every practice and they have all worked extremely hard already to get to this point in the season and it is only going to grow from here,” Allan said.
Monday’s goal scorer epitomizes that mentality.
“She (Peeler) is a hard worker, gets up and down the wing and does everything right,” he said.
The 16-year-old started in soccer when she was eight and has played travel soccer with the St. Catharines Jets, Welland, Niagara Regional, Pelham, Niagara United and back to Niagara Regional.
The Grade 10 student plays striker with her travel team but is on the left or right wing for the Bulldogs.
“I need to make good runs. We all have really good chemistry.”
Peeler was a member of last year’s team and thinks this year’s team is similar to the OFSAA medalist.
“We did lose a lot of players but I still think we have a really good chance because we gained a lot of 09s (2009 birth date) and they are all really good,” she said. “We have a good group of girls and we are all positive and ready to get out there.”
Peeler enjoys competing in opening games of the season. She also scored in the season opener last season and feels it is a great way to jumpstart her season.
“It’s really important to score because it motivates you for the rest of the season.”
Eden fell to 0-3 in Niagara Region High School Athletic Association play with the loss but had a few chances to tie the score, especially in the second half.
“That was one of our better games. We are starting to play together as a team and we are just trying to find our groove here,” said Denny Dischke, who coaches team along with Katrina Lombardi.
He is looking to build the program as the season moves along.
“We have a real big junior team. I think more than half of our girls are in Grade 9 or 10. We had a lot of Grade 12s leave last year who were strong players but we have a strong Grade 9 group.”
The goal for the season is to develop chemistry.
“It’s to figure out how to play together. They come from all over. Eden brings them in from Fort Erie to Stoney Creek and these girls (Churchill) have all played together and they all live in the neighbourhood. We are figuring out where each one plays the best.”
