Winners in every game played this season, the Fleetwood Park Dragons senior girls high school soccer team is hoping to remain unbeaten for five more games.
The Dragons stopped the Elgin Park Orcas 4-1 last Thursday (May 19) in an all-Surrey final to the Fraser Valley Senior AAA Championships. Both teams will play at the B.C. Championships June 2-4 in South Delta.
“Winning the Fraser Valleys is a huge accomplishment,” said Dragons head coach Sunny Uppal. “It is such a difficult tournament to win, as the Valley teams do real well at provincial championships.”
Simran Billen netted two goals for the Dragons, with Simi Lehal and Liesanne Musico adding one each.
Liv Jillings replied for the Orcas.
“Unfortunately, our youth and nerves showed and a very good Fleetwood team took advantage,” said Orcas coach Chris Ellett. “There were the better team on the day and were very deserving of the title.”
The loss was the first of the season for the Orcas, a team which went 6-0-1 (win-loss-tie) in league play before winning their first three playoff contests.
Elgin Park placed fourth the provincial championship last season, but lost seven starters to graduation. With several Grade 9-11s in the lineup, Ellett is please with what the team has accomplished.
“Overall, it was a great season and playoffs for us,” he said. “We learned a lot about ourselves and realized that despite being relatively young and small, we can compete with any school in the province. (The loss) will not determine the success of our season.”
The Dragons are perfect through 11 regular season and playoff games. They outscored seven opponents 27-2 in league play to finish atop the West Zone standings and earn the number-one seed for the playoff tournament.
Fleetwood Park then won their first three playoff games by an 11-1 aggregate.
Silver medalists last season, the Dragons are hoping to move one more step up the podium in South Delta.
Fleetwood Park won the B.C. Championship in 2014.
“Fortunately, the girls have had experience being in the provincial final back to back years,” said Uppal. “Our goals at the beginning of the year were to go undefeated in regular season, win the Valleys, and win the blue banner (provincial championship).
“Two goals down, one more to go.”