Lady Stampeders bust out of the gate

      Reigning OFSAA 2A champs start 2017 with nine consecutive wins

By Rob J. Ross

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

ST. THOMAS, Ont. - Opponents are eyeing the Parkside Stampeders a little differently these days.

Winning an OFSAA championship does that for a school and its team.

The Stampeders’ girls’ soccer team became provincial high school AA champions last June, a first for a Parkside team.

Now the Stampeders have started the 2017 season with similar success, winning a tournament and owning a 4-0 record in the Thames Valley Region Athletic (TVRA) South Division.

 "Other teams are looking at us differently. They know you have won OFSAA. It’s hard to come in under the radar now,” Parkside coach Gerry Safadi said. “There’s not any added pressure on the girls. They wanted to compete hard all last season and they want to do the same this year. They just go out and keep working hard.”

The reigning OFSAA 2A champions kicked off the year by allowing no goals, on their way to winning the Niagara Cup, in Welland. The Stampeders capped a 5-0 record, with a 1-0 shutout of last year’s OFSAA 3A silver medalist, Niagara Falls St. Mike’s.

Ashley Watson scored from a free kick, while goalie Meghan Mahaffy-Schmidt recorded the shutout.

“It was very competitive. We played different teams with strong calibre players,” Safadi said. “It was a good way for all the girls to get in. It was also a good team bonding thing.”

Sixteen players return from last year’s roster.

A few key players graduated and then the Stampeders lost two “significant’ players prior to the season, Haley Summers to an injury suffered during the futsal season and Nicole Carnegie to mono.

“We are still really young (with six Grade nine players),” Safadi said. “I think we’re in good shape, but it can tough to tell in a short season.”

Parkside won their fourth game in TVRA action, by defeating Safadi’s former team, the Central Elgin Titans, 3-1, at City Wide Fields in London today.  Taylor Goodhue, with two goals and Braelyn Dennis scored for Parkside, while Tara Ryan replied for the Titans.

Winning an OFSAA championship is one of those once in a lifetime achievements.

“It was amazing. Curtis Langley and I were coaching and when we won it was hard to believe, Safadi recalls. “We were excited to make it to OFSAA and when you win gold, you think about how few have done it in their coaching careers.”

Parkside escaped a tough pool that featured the 2015 champion, Ottawa Louis Riel, plus the 2015 bronze medalist. Then the Stampeders won their quarter-final, 5-0, semi-final, 3-1, before blanking Ottawa Cairine Wilson secondary school, 1-0, in the final.

“We had immense depth off the bench. We knew we were deep. We could sub players and not lose much. We knew that was going to be our strength. We played to it all during OFSAA. We could rest players while other team couldn’t rest their starters. After seven games you can be exhausted but we were fairly fresh.”

In April, the City of St. Thomas recognized the Lady Stampeders’ OFSAA gold medal achievement, at its Honours and Awards Presentation.