RASC bounces back for bronze

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on August 12, 2019.

NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Georgia Herter, of the Rattlers Athletic Soccer Club, celebrates after scoring a goal in the Alberta Soccer Championship girls under-15 Tier 3 bronze medal game against Ardrossan at the Family Leisure Centre on Sunday.

Edit: An incorrect scorer was originally listed for the RASC 15-under girls teams’ Sunday morning game. Kailey Duchscherer passed to Antonina Dumanowski for the team’s lone goal in a 3-1 loss.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken

The Rattlers Athletic Soccer Club’s under-15 girls squad seized its spot on the podium Sunday evening at the Family Leisure Centre.

After narrowly missing out on the final in a 3-1 loss to MUSC Freedom Sunday morning, the Rattlers shook off the setback and stormed to a 5-2 victory over Ardrossan for bronze at the Alberta Soccer Championships.

“We knew that we could have won it so we tried harder in this game and we succeeded,” said Rattlers forward Antonina Dumanowski, who scored twice in the bronze medal game. “It’s really good because we worked hard. I thought we would do well and we did. We finished strong.”

Dumanowski opened the scoring for Medicine Hat in the bronze medal game, giving the hosts an important edge that they never gave up. While the game was played through to its conclusion, Hat head coach Melissa Hozack says inclement weather made every early goal matter a little bit more.

“We got an early goal and it’s always nice to get the lead like that -we weren’t sure about thunderstorms, because we know they called the game before,” she said. “There were lots of good strong players out there (on Ardrossan). They were pushing us around a little bit, we felt, but we came back strong and kept it going. It was really good.”

Audyn Mettauer, Abree Toews and Georgia Herter also contributed to the scoring in Medicine Hat’s bronze medal victory. Kaelyn Sideroff and Abbie Potter responded for Ardrossan.

“We communicated well,” said Dumanowski. “We worked on our weaknesses and just made them stronger.”

Hozack added her squad was met with a touch of bad luck in their lone loss of the tournament Sunday morning. But after finishing on the podium in their three tournaments leading into the Alberta Soccer Championships, Hozack says she was thrilled to see her team repeat the feat as hosts on the provincial stage.

“We had a couple good tournaments coming up into this and really hard play all the way through. We were just unlucky a little bit (Sunday) morning, but we came back and won,” she said. “What can I say? Lots of hard work.”

The Rattlers opened the tournament with a 4-1 victory over DUFC Tigers and a 3-2 win over the Saints on Saturday before falling to the Freedom on Sunday morning.

Dumanowski potted a pair in her team’s opening win over the Tigers, while Allyssa Heidel and Toews added individual tallies.

Toews scored twice for Medicine Hat in their win over the Saints, while Arianna Sinclair added the team’s third goal.

Dumanowski netted Medicine Hat’s lone tally in their loss to the Freedom Sunday morning.

Results from the girls gold medal game, as well as the under-15 Tier 3 boys tournament, were not available by press time.