Portree High School Girls Seal Tournament Victory! | |
22 June 2011 It was the culmination of four year’s hard work on and off the field as Portree High School won their maiden Ladies shinty tournament at Drumnadrochit on Wednesday 15 June 2011. Portree then watched rivals Lochaber beat Dingwall Academy by the same score. Portree then met Lochaber and the winners would be hot favourites to win the tournament. Portree started nervously and they lost a sloppy goal within thirty seconds. The bench thought it was to be a case of same old story against Lochaber but the Sgitheanach girls piled on the pressure and ended the first half well on top with Rosalind Lamont playing a captain’s role and negating the threat posed by Beth MacDonald. Sarah Nicolson was splendid in defence with some graceful play. Lorna MacRae and Marie MacKinnon both went close for Portree on numerous occasions as the second half wore on but the Islanders were unable to pierce the Lochaber defence. Lochaber then returned on the attack and only the brilliance of Ilana Paterson in the Portree goal, who pulled off three stunning saves in a row, kept Lochaber's advantage to a single goal. Then, with only a couple of minutes left on the clock, Lorna MacRae’s wonderful back hand drive from 25 yards drew Portree level and put her side on the front foot. Lochaber’s heads went down and good work from the impressive Helen Lamont resulted in a cross ball which bamboozled the Lochaber defence. Lorna MacRae was left ruing what might have been as she skied the ball over the bar with only seconds to go from a similar distance to where she hit her equaliser. The 1-1 score line was the school’s best result against Lochaber, who have been the dominant force in schoolgirls’ shinty for many years. Portree and Lochaber shared the same "goals for" and "goal difference" so the tournament outcome would come down to which team could gain the biggest winning margin in their remaining game. Portree faced a much improved Dingwall team who had beaten hosts Glenurquhart 3-2. Kristen Macbeth started on the wing for a Portree side which needed to score seven goals. However Caitlin MacLean told the older girls, “we will score ten,” and she wasn’t far wrong. It took a nervous seven or eight minutes after the opening goal before Lorna MacRae put the pedal to the metal and Portree finished the first half 4-0 ahead but still several goals from the tournament win they so coveted. Ilana Paterson pushed into the full centre position and Maisie Tonagh played a great game in defence. Caitlin MacLean grabbed two goals as well as feeding Lorna MacRae who scored 7 goals in the game. The seventh goal was greeted with a roar, the eighth with a louder roar and the ninth sent the bench into rapture. Caitlin MacLean’s prophesised tenth goal never materialised but it didn’t matter. As the final whistle blew, the girls and manager Eoghan Stewart celebrated the tournament victory and a 9-0 record win. |