Penalty kicks continue to be the McMath Wildcats’ kryptonite when it comes to the B.C. Girls AAA Soccer Championships.
The Steveston school completed another unbeaten run at the 16-team tournament but will was still kept off the podium. The Wildcats’ championship hopes ended with a tiebreaker shootout loss to the Fraser Valley champion Centennial Centaurs on Thursday morning at UBC.
The championships puts a heavy emphasis on round-robin play with only the first place team in each of the four groups advancing directly to the semi-finals.
Both teams finished group play with 2-0-1 records — that included battling to a scoreless draw on Wednesday afternoon. After McMath defeated North Peace (6-2) and Centennial got past New West (4-1) to open play Thursday morning, the penalty kick drama followed a short time later.
The Coquitlam school prevailed 3-2 and went on to defeat Victoria’s Reynolds Roadrunners in the semi-final to advance to Friday’s gold medal game against two-time defending champion Fleetwood Park.
As for the Wildcats, they got past Sardis 2-1 on Thursday afternoon, then blanked North Shore champion Argyle Pipers 3-0 on Friday morning to finish fifth.
Remarkably, it’s the fourth time in five years McMath has not lost in preliminary play, only to be knocked out of championship contention in the tiebreaker format.
Earlier, McMath went undefeated in Richmond play and lost to Kitsilano in the Vancouver and District final.
