The Pitbulls beat Cape Breton Highlands 3-2 on Saturday afternoon in Cape Breton, with Erica Cherry scoring the winning goal and Kari Waller making the decisive save moments later in the Pictou Academy net.
“Our battle didn’t start at the beginning of this season,” said PA senior Clare MacDonald.
“We’ve been working hard for this for four years.”
The two teams played regulation scoreless, and after two overtime periods failed to produce a winner, it was on to penalty kicks. Thea Waller and Emma Ruiz also scored on penalty kicks, and Kari Waller made enough saves in goal, allowing the Pitbulls to drive home from Cape Breton with a Division 3 championship.
“Every player was instrumental in that win today,” said assistant coach Tara Fanning.
“(Head coach Philip Ruiz) and I had a game plan and they executed it perfectly. Kari Waller made two saves on penalty kicks, and certainly plenty of saves during the game.”
The Pitbulls used a quick passing game and a stingy defence focused on slowing down CBH.
“It was pretty crazy. It could have been anybody’s game,” MacDonald said. “As soon as we won, we were like, ‘our picture is going up on the wall at our school.’ We worked hard for each other and for our school.”