Chilliwack U16 Girls, Strikers, captured a road win as they travelled to Surrey to play the Surdel Vipers, under the lights on Sunday.
Chilliwack had a strong first half, attacking the Viper defense and disrupting their clearing attempts and passes, and gaining the territorial advantage for most of the game. The Strikers kept Surrey on edge in the midfield as well, as they marked the home side’s attackers closely preventing any quality chances on their keeper. For the few shots that got through, keeper Samantha Chand, boomed them back through center creating scoring chances for her forwards.
It one of these kicks, at the 18-minute mark, that got the visitors on the board. Chand’s clearing kick was taken by outside midfielder, Taylor Allen, who played ‘give-and-go’ with Brett Karcioglu to get past the first defender. Karcioglu then sent a pass to center-mid Emma Haagensen who feathered the ball through to a streaking Emily Finley. Finley made no mistake, slipping a shot past the diving keeper for the opening score.
It was not until the 30th minute of the first half that the Chilliwack pressure paid off once again. It was another nice passing play from centre defends, Kelli Whitehead to the outside mid, Kaila Rondo that started the play. Rondo fed a pass to the speedy Finley who pushed passed the defender at the six-yard line and put her shot into the far lower corner of the net, past a surprised Viper keeper for her second tally of the game.
Though the Strikers continued to push hard on Surrey trying add to their lead with some well placed passes to the forwards Kiana Thiessen and Makayla Pfeifer, the numerous offside calls disrupted the flow of the Chilliwack attack. The locals continued their pressure on Surrey, but could not capitalize on them and the final score remained 2-0.
Chilliwack is on the road again next Sunday to take on the Ravens, the other Surrey team.