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Ladysmith’s Bouma nets game winner as U18 Storm squad clinch provincial bronze

Ladysmith’s Haven Bouma netted the game winning goal as the Upper Island Storm won the bronze medal at the U18 B.C. Soccer championships last weekend in Surrey.
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Haven Bouma, Shea Battie, coach Kathleen Nicholls, Olivia Mazurenko and Georgia Nicholls with their bronze medals at last weekend’s U18 B.C. Soccer championships in Surrey.

Ladysmith’s Haven Bouma netted the game winning goal as the Upper Island Storm won the bronze medal at the U18 B.C. Soccer championships last weekend in Surrey.

The Nanaimo-based team captured both the Island Cup and Coastal Cup titles earlier this season and had high expectations heading into the provincial tournament.

Ladysmith’s Bouma, Shea Battie, Olivia Mazurenko and Georgia Nicholls were part of the 18-player roster and Kathleen Nicholls was on the coaching staff.

In the Storm’s first match on the Thursday, the squad ran away with the win over the Kamloops Blaze with a final score of 5-2.

However, on the following day the eventual provincial champions SFC Pegasus (Surrey) narrowly got past the Storm 1-0.

“It was a close game back and forth,” said coach Nicholls. “We had two shots on net that looked like they’d gone in but there’s no way to go back and see that again.”

The Nanaimo team reached a nil-nil draw in their third game against the Fraser Valley Selects leading to a key match between Surrey and Kamloops.

Needing Surrey to win or tie if the Storm were to reach the final, SFC Pegasus, already knowing the result of the earlier game, suffered a shocking 2-0 loss in the final game of the round robin.

Upper Island played Fraser Valley again on the Sunday for the bronze and topped them 2-1 thanks to Bouma’s heroics.

SFC Pegasus regained composure against Kamloops and in a rematch for gold easily beat them 5-0.

Georgia and Battie are moving on to study at Vancouver Island University in the fall and will play varsity soccer.

“Georgia had a fantastic tournament,” said Nicholls. “She was just a super dependable go-to player to keep strong a presence in the middle of the field and held relieve some pressure.”

Mazurenko and Bouma will return to LSS for their senior year with the hopes of once again leading the team to a third consecutive berth in the AA provincial championships.





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