Royal City youth soccer club's New West Barcelona had a successful weekend at the GirlsCan Western Canada Showcase soccer tournament.
Barcelona compiled a record of two wins, one tie and one loss against predominantly older opposition at the Easter long weekend tourney.
Barca got off to a solid start, beating Edmonton-Victoria 3-2 on two goals by Rachel Hutchinson and a single by Madison Savoie.
A very early Saturday morning schedule saw Barca kick off against Calgary's SWU Alliance - a team that featured a dozen Grade 12 players who already have Canadian university scholarships in place for September.
The Calgary side played strong possession football but Barca, comprised solely of Grade 10 students, got on the scoreboard first.
A missed clearance on an attacking run by Hutchinson deflected to Raquel Tjernagel, who put the New West side up 1-0.
Calgary eventually knotted the score and the final 30 minutes were played in mid-field with both sides knocking the ball around and each side having a few quality chances.
Ally Fabian, Zoe Loewen and Sarah Ng all played solid, confident football for Barca. Unfortunately with just seconds remaining, Barca gave up a penalty kick that was buried by the Alliance shooter to seal the 2-1 victory for Calgary.
Later in the day, Barca shut out an under-18 opponent from Kamloops.
Hutchinson and Celeste Bain gave the Barca side a comfortable 2-0 lead at the half.
Miki Knowler, Juliet Davies, Alessia Mastromonaco and Arsh Kaler all played outstanding games, as did Olivia Alexis who earned the shutout between the pipes.
Barca played to a scoreless draw in their final game of the tournament against Edmonton Juventus.
Hutchinson, fed by Juliet Davies from the back line, had three opportunities in the first five minutes but failed to score.
Ellen Williams, Montana Wegner and Naomi Noda also had strong games.
