Is this at last the breakthrough year for the McMath Wildcats?
The unbeaten Steveston school sits atop the new B.C “AAA” Girls Soccer rankings and will look to continue its reign as Vancouver and District champion against No. 3 Kitsilano on Thursday at Jericho Park.
The Wildcats rolled past Lord Byng 6-1 in their semi-final match-up on Tuesday at Minoru Park, while Kitsilano blanked Churchill 2-0. Both schools are destined for the B.C. Championships at the end of the month which will be hosted by Kits at UBC.
McMath’s dominance is hardly a surprise given it lost just one player from last year’s starting 11 and are loaded with talent that will be taking their games to the collegiate level next fall.
The Wildcats have enjoyed an outstanding run for the past decade but have been snake bitten at provincials thanks to a format that leaves no room for error. For three straight years (2014-16) they went unbeaten at the tournament in pool play but failed to advance to the semi-finals. Only the four group winners go directly to the semi-finals and each time McMath lost in the penalty shootout tiebreaker.
This time the talent and depth is in place to not worry about tiebreakers and deliver the school its first provincial senior banner.
Corner kicks…
A fine season for the Burnett Breakers ended with a 3-0 loss to Churchill in the “AAA” district semi-finals last week.
Richmond League runners-up McRoberts Strikers (6-1-0) and third place finishers Hugh Boyd (5-2-0) are battling this week for berths into the B.C. “AA” Championships. That tournament also goes May 31 to June 2 in Kamloops.
