From Kevin Burgham, coach of the AYSC U14 Girls team:
Sunday July 13, 2025 – the AYSC U14 Girls’ Fall 2024/25 season has finally come to an end. It was long, intense, surprising, uncertain, uplifting, exciting, stressful, long, fun, glorious, exhausting, long (did I mention this?) and most of all, memorable. I’m sure there are plenty of other descriptive words I could use as well.
Game 4 vs Port Coquitlam FC for the Bronze: Before the game I told the team that regardless of the result this season ends on a high for me; and that was the truth. The temperature was higher than expected and it played a major factor for both teams in their 4th game in 4 days. We got off to a great start with Alivia Chalmers scoring her 6th of the tournament. I did a quick check of all the games played in the U14 division and as long as the refs got everything correct, Liv was the Golden Boot in our division. Very impressive!
Cassie Cantil, our keeper, played incredible again today. She made every save possible and objectively from what I saw, was the best goalie in her age group at the tournament.
Unfortunately PCFC tied the game up early in the second. We didn’t let this get to us and pushed back. I felt like we had the upper hand for a bit and narrowly missed a couple chances to regain the lead. Then we had a spell of bad luck. PoCo had a crazy deflection loop up and over Cassie just under the cross bar. Not long after, another mis-kick floated up in the air in what seemed like slow motion to drop just in-time under the cross bar again. These 2 fluky goals really deflated the girls. With the temperature rising, along with emotions, fortune was just not on our side today.
Aldergrove United Girls fought to the bitter end, never once giving up, but ran out of time. PCFC managed to squeak in a messy goal as we pushed on offense right in the last minute of the game, taking a 4-1 loss.
Tears were shed, but the girls immediately started consoling each other. It took all of 10 seconds after the whistle for a smile to return to my face. After the hand shake and a quick talk the girls were laughing and smiling through their tears; proud of their 4th place finish.
Our record at the Provincials:
- 2-1 loss vs Saanich
- 3-0 win vs Coastal
- 4-3 win vs Kamloops
- 4-1 loss vs PCFC
Our goal scorers in the tournament were:
- Thao Tran – 1
- Mia Berry – 1
- Marissa Falk – 1
- Liv Chalmers – 6
A U14 team with half the roster being U13, one of the youngest teams at Provincials, the smallest team at Provincials: They made the biggest splash and enjoyed every minute of it. Their parents, fans and coaches couldn’t be more proud of the season they wrote for themselves. I’m looking forward to a break from soccer, but also looking forward to next Fall in keeping these girls together, developing and ultimately defending their Coastal Cup Champions title.
Thanks for the support AYSC!
Kevin Burgham
Thank You U14 Girls Sponsors!
A huge thanks to the sponsors who contributed to the girls’ Provincials experience:
- Aldergrove Soccer
- Township of Langley
- Aldergrove Elks
- Co-operators / Aldergrove Insurance Services
- iContext Internet
- Burgham Custom Engraving
