It wasn’t the medal they were striving for but the Richmond Strikers still capped an outstanding season on the podium at B.C. Soccer’s Provincial “A” Cup Championships.
The U14 girls side concluded their lengthy campaign with a 3-1 victory over Kelowna United on Sunday morning at the Boyd Oval.
The Strikers were the lone host side competing in the four-day event that featured 48 boys and girls teams in divisions U13 to U18 battling for B.C. bragging rights.
Richmond was looking to complete the rare treble after earlier winning the Metro Selects League regular season title then capturing the Coastal Cup back in May with a win in penalty kicks over the West Vancouver Rangers.
Those two Lower Mainland rivals met again to open up Provincial Cup play on Thursday morning and it was the Rangers prevailing this time — 2-1.
With the Victoria Thunder getting past Kelowna 4-0 in the other opening day match-up, it meant the Strikers were in a must-win situation on Friday against the Vancouver Island champions. The Thunder squeezed out a 1-0 win while West Van got past Kelowna 2-0 — also securing its spot in the gold medal game.
Those results meant the Strikers would face Kelowna on consecutive days to close out the tournament. After a convincing 5-1 win on Saturday, they followed that result with the bronze medal triumph less than 24 hours later.
The Strikers roster features: Makayla Kusch, Alexandra Shury, Zoe Balback, Kiayra Hohlweg, Ashley Maedel, Kara Hikida, Christina Sofikitis, Janelle Tuazon-Cabido, Jaya Punia, Natalia Lawson, Mahara Remtula, Saniya Mann, Teagan Ng, Erica Forman and Ausha Kang.
The girls are coached by Mandhir Punia and Greg Ng.
