Youth & High School

Glory for Mariner in vacation tourney
February 25, 2007

Mariner's Under-11 Girls emerged victorious at the 19 February indoor tournament at Forekicks in Norfolk, MA as a 5-4 come-from-behind overtime victory over the Danvers Pride gave Sarah Bourque's side the Winter Break Classic Championship.

After overcoming FC Greater Boston Bolts, 2-0, in their opening game, Mainer took on FC Napoli. The sides traded early goals and could not be separated until, with three minutes left to play, Napoli was able to put the ball past Kristina Georgadarellis to win the game.

Mariner's triumphant team show off their trophies

After taking second place in their division, Mariner went into the semi-finals against the Bristol Riptides. Despite being at a disadvantage from a physical point of view, Mariner played throughout regulation, which ended in a goalless tie. In the opening seconds of overtime, Mariner's Courtney Fox broke through on the Riptides goal and squeezed her shot home to give her team the victory and a spot in the final.

In the Championship game, Mariner was quickly behind by two goals to Danvers. Two more goals came following Mariner mistakes and, with fifteen minutes left to play, Bourque's side was behind, 4-1. Mariner chipped away at the Danvers lead and had cut the deficit to one as the game entered the final two minutes.

Marissa Rocha was then fouled in the penalty area and, from the resulting spot-kick, Fox blasted home to tie the game at four apiece. In overtime, Mariner completed their remarkable comeback. A quick throw by Jesley Teixeira found Nicole Simas, who carried possession upfield. Simas played a pass to Rocha, whose shot deflected off a Pride defender back to Simas' foot, who picked out the unmarked Fox in front of the net and the team's leading scorer did the rest with her eighth goal of the tournament.

“I am extremely lucky to have a team full of girls that never give up,” said Bourque after the game. “The girls were down three goals. When most teams would give up, my team kept up the fight. They had the heart and the will to win the game and that is why we won the Championship. Not to mention, they played together as a team. I give them a lot of credit.”

Mariner's squad was made up of Kristina Georgadarellis, Julia Silverstein, Erin Gallagher, Jesley Teixeira, Courtney Fox, Nicole Simas, Marissa Rocha, Morgan Carney, Mikayla Roderick and Juliette Collins.

Thanks to John Casella of Mariner SC for this report. To get your club's latest news to appear on www.soccernewengland.com, simply send it to newsdesk@soccernewengland.com.