After both teams were shut down in their semi-final games on Saturday, the Cape Breton Capers and Alberta Pandas went into Sunday’s match with a bronze medal on their minds. In the end, the Canada West champion Pandas won 1–0 over the Atlantic University Sports champion Cape Breton Capers.
Alberta took charge early on, with a goal by Shalla Kadima, who headed the ball in off a corner kick from forward Jessie Candlish in the first two minutes of the game. Alberta had only a few minutes of relief before Cape Breton had them back on their toes.
The rest of the match was a nail-biter, with both teams struggling to put more numbers on the board. Alberta and Cape Bretons were neck-and-neck for the remainder of the game, with five goal attempts each, yielding no further scoring.
In the last few minutes of the game, Cape Breton had a few more chances to make it on the score board, but Alberta met every valiant goal-attempt with solid defense.
“I’m amazed by this group of girls”, Pandas head coach Liz Jespen said after the game. “I’ve had the pleasure of coaching many, many good teams and many, many great players. I think what’s unique about this team is the fact that from start to finish we have a number of good players… Realistically speaking it’s a very good team.”
Even in the face of disappointment, the Cape Breton head coach, Stephen Timmons, maintained a positive attitude. “That’s when you show character, when you go down early like that… I’m very proud of the way they battled through to the end of the game,” he said.
