The St. Michaels University School senior girls field hockey team narrowly edged out the host team, Quw’utsun Secondary, in the John Ferreira Memorial Cup on Saturday, Sept. 27. The final game featured a sudden death shootout that went seven rounds.
It was the second-straight year the Quw’utsun T-birds were in the final, though last year they came out on top.
"Our team played fantastic and placed second overall in the tournament," said coach Ashton Aumen. "It was a great weekend full of exciting games."
This year, the Ferreira featured 10 teams in two tiers. The tier 1 field included the two finalists along with the first teams from Shawnigan Lake and Brentwood College schools.
Competing in the Tier 2 event were Shawnigan Lake School's and Brentwood College's second teams, Alberni Valley District Secondary School, Kelsey Secondary School, Queen Margaret's School and Quamichan School.
Qu'wutsun played four games in total and the first was against SMUS in a preview of what was to come. That game ended with a 0-0 draw.
From there, Sarah Irvine's goal was enough for the T-Birds to beat Shawnigan Lake School 1-0 and Natalie Ellingson's lone goal was also enough to beat Brentwood College School 1-0 and send Qu'wutsun to the last game against SMUS.
The championship match was played to a 1-1 regulation-time tie with Ellingson scoring for the T-Birds.
What happened next was pure drama.
The sudden death shootout featured two goalkeepers both new to the position with Quw'utsun's Rafi Barrack and SMUS's Lina Cratzius both performing exceptionally well in their new roles. In the end, after seven rounds of shooting, Qu'wutsun was able to beat Cratzius once while SMUS got two past Barack.
"Rafi was incredible in her first ever shootout as a goalie," Aumen said. "She saved five of the seven shootout goals and was fantastic in net for us all weekend.
"Caitlin [Evans, co-coach] and I are very proud of how our team played against some very strong teams and we are looking forward to continuing to grow as a team as the season continues."
The Ferreira tournament, hosted by Cow High, is played in memory of John Ferreira, a former Cowichan Secondary and community coach.
Qu'wutsun next plays in the oldest field hockey tournament in Canada, the Bridgman Cup, at the University of Victoria on Oct. 11-13.
