Smithereens take top seed in 2008 women’s playoffs

The Matt Smith’s Smithereens swept their last two games in the regular season of the 2008 Women’s Recreational Spring Football League to gain the top seeding in the playoffs.

The Smithereens finished the league with 11 points following their victory over Wild Bill’s Wild Fire and PIC’s Paradise In Cleats.

The Nikki Gabaldon and Katie Peters-captained Smithereens met Wild Fire last Saturday at the CPA Airport Field and eked out a 1-0 victory.

Three players teamed up for the game-winning goal for the Smithereens in the first half with Madison Smith passing the ball to Brianna Martin, who kicked the ball toward Nikki Gabaldon for the lone goal of the match

“It was an awesome play. Talk about teamwork,” Gabaldon said.

Two days after escaping Wild Fire, the Smithereens returned to the field and recorded back-to-back wins after shutting out PIC’s Paradise In Cleats, 2-0.

Gabaldon praised goalkeepers Jolene Dykstra and Maria Ornes for preventing PIC from scoring.

The Brenda Schultz and Divya Sharma-led Paradise In Cleats finished the last two games of the regular season with a 0-1 loss-draw record. It played the Marianas Eye Spectacular Blues last Saturday and forced a 2-2 draw

PIC ended the regular season in second place with six points, making Schultz proud of her teammates’ consistent performance.

“I felt that Chantelle Voutilainen, Kathy Pagapular, Don Decha, and Michi Tenorio had a great game. They were doing headers, getting to the ball first, passing, and really showing improving skills on the field,” Schultz said.

In the PIC-Marianas Eye tiff, Jenny Linen and Nicollete Seckler scored a goal apiece for the former. Young strikers Amber Roberts and Zoe Jewell’s one goal each for Marianas Eye tied the game.

Roberts scored the first goal of the game on a Becca Newman cross. Linden made the second goal in the final minute of the first half on another beautiful cross from Tenorio.

In the second half, PIC took the league when Meaghan Hassel-Shearer set up Seckler for the third goal of the game.

But PIC failed to seal the win when Jewell, after several attempts to attack the Paradise In Cleats’ defense, finally slipped past her defenders for the game-tying goal

Marianas Eye played in the last game of the regular season last Tuesday and lost to Wild Fire, 0-1.

Jamie Beavis scored the lone goal of the game in the first half, helping Wild Fire secure the No. 3 seeding. Wild Bill’s and Marianas Eye had four points each at the conclusion of the regular season, but the former won the tiebreak after prevailing in last Tuesday’s match.

The playoffs will begin this Saturday with the top-ranked Smithereens facing Marianas Eye in the semis and PIC dueling Wild Bill’s in the other semis pairing.

Winners of the semis matches will advance to the championship game which will be played on June 7. [B][I](RM)[/I][/B]