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Rainmakers falter in season opening weekend in Prince Rupert

Tanveen Randhawa found a through-ball midway through the first half of Charles Hays' girls soccer match against Kitimat.
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Henzle Masocol (right) battles for the ball with Tanveen Randhawa (centre) against Kitimat in the season-opening weekend.

Down 1-0 in her second game in five hours and with her team struggling to find offence, Tanveen Randhawa found a through-ball midway through the first half of Charles Hays' girls soccer match against Kitimat's Mount Elizabeth Secondary.

Randhawa made a move to split the surrounding defence, but was hauled down. The ref's arm shot up.

A penalty kick was awarded just outside the 18-yard box. Randhawa didn't miss.

The forward blasted a strike past a leaping Kitimat goalkeep and Charles Hays tied the affair at one.

That's how the first half would end, and for the home side, the closest they would come to winning their first match of the season.

Mount Elizabeth pulled away in the second half, scoring twice to take the 3-1 victory over a Charles Hays squad who earlier fell to Terrace's Caledonia Senior Secondary in their first match of the season.

CHSS's Henzle Masocol scored in that game and was a large threat in the first half of her second before Kitimat posted double coverage on Charles Hays' most consistent lethal option. She's not the tallest player, but she's also not afraid to challenge for possession.

"I went for the ball and they just pummelled me down, but I got up," said the striker.

Masocol highlighted a solid effort from the group's first weekend of competitive play. Coach Kyla Ragan was impressed after her first good look at this year's squad.

"I think they did really well," said Ragan.

"There's a few things with positioning that we've got to sort out and then we haven't touched on penalty kicks or anything, so we're going to go over how not to get them."

The back-end played well and suffered only a few mental lapses when Kitimat was able to break through their defences for the second half game-winning marker and their third insurance goal to seal the game away.

The goal to start the second half was a shot that found the top-left corner of the mesh behind a busy second-half Charles Hays goalkeeper, who did a fine job stopping the majority of the shots sent her way.

A scramble in the penalty area found a wide open Kitimat forward who slid one into an open net for the 3-1 lead. The team next plays after the Easter break.

"I think we played good for our first games," said Masocol.