Richmond F.C. is going to have nightmares about Cloverdale Athletic Park.
For the second straight year, the premier women’s soccer team saw its season end at the multi-sport venue — suffering another heartbreaking Provincial Cup defeat to Surrey United.
A year ago, Richmond fell in extra time to its Metro Women’s Soccer League rival. The semi-final rematch 12 months later was determined in penalty kicks after the teams exchanged goals in overtime. Surrey won the subsequent shootout 5-3 and will now represent B.C. at nationals for the second straight year after a 2-0 win over the North Shore Renegades in the Provincial Cup final.
Richmond had entered cup play as the only unbeaten team in the MWSL. However, it lost to North Shore in the league cup final and the Surrey result followed weeks later.
The visitors had United on its heels for the final 25 minutes of regulation time but couldn’t finish some excellent chances. Surrey jumped on a defensive miscue to take the lead in overtime before Natalie Hirayama equalized off a corner kick.
“We controlled possession but just didn’t do enough once we got into the penalty box,” said Richmond coach Jim Caldwell. “Surrey has certainly become our nemesis the last couple of years.”
Making the loss a little bit more painful was it should have been Richmond’s home game.
Miscommunication and late notification to B.C. Soccer opened the door for Surrey to host. Instead of the ultra-fast Minoru Park oval, the match was played on one of CAP’s grass fields.
The bright spot is the girls are determined to take another run at the championship next season. Richmond won its first Provincial Cup in over 30 years back in 2016 and went on to finish second at the national championships.
Its roster features former Oregon State University star Jenna Richardson and Caitlin Davie who has been the league’s top scorer in two of the past three seasons. Homegrown standouts include Hirayama who played at UBC after helping McRoberts win their first-ever B.C. high school championship, along with speedster Shanay Sangha.
“Right after the game the girls all said they want to stay intact and keep this going,” said Caldwell. “One thing that really hurt us is we waited six weeks to play the league cup final and then had another wait (and a first round bye) before playing Surrey. It was difficult to schedule exhibition games with so few teams left playing and girls had exams to write too. But we will be back.”
Corner kicks…
Surrey’s line-up included Jalen Donaldson who has come through the club’s HPL program. The McMath Grade 12 student is headed to Louisiana next fall to play at Northwestern State University.
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