Hardly a game went by this spring when Bridget Mulholland didn’t score a goal for the Regiopolis Notre Dame Panthers.
Tuesday, she turned the tables. Her job was to prevent people from scoring goals—and she did it flawlessly.
Mulholland posted the shutout as the Panthers defeated the Sydenham Golden Eagles 7-0 in a Kingston Area Secondary Schools Athletic Association senior girls soccer semifinal at Brother O’Gara Field.
The victory sends Regi into Thursday’s championship match at Miklas-McCarney Field against the Kingston Blues, 1-0 winners over the Frontenac Falcons in Tuesday’s other semifinal.
Playing at Regi, two goals by Kaitlyn Balfour gave the Panthers a 2-0 halftime lead, then Emma Lefebvre took over, scoring four straight goals to turn the game into a rout. Kaitlyn Sherboneau scored Regi’s other goal, as Sydenham’s bid for a Cinderella playoff came to an abrupt end.
The seventh-place Eagles had reached the semifinals with a stirring upset of the No. 2 seed, Holy Cross, in the first round.
Regi, 6-0 and the first-place team during the regular year, will take an eight-game winning streak into Thursday’s final. The Panthers have scored 37 goals in those eight games, including 13 so far in the playoffs.
KC, meanwhile, fashioned a 5-1 regular-season record on the strength of a superlative defence. The Blues won all of their games by shutout, and haven’t allowed a goal in their last five games, since they were defeated by Regi 2-0 April 29.
Thursday’s final will commence at 3 p.m.