On the 3rd July five of Wickersley Year 10 and 11 girls Shannon Swann, Maddison Lees, Martha Roper, Ellie Mayfield and Daisy Heathcote travelled to San Marino in Italy to play in the San Marino Cup with their team Millmoor Juniors U16s in the under 17 category.
The girls started off the week drawing to one of the three Italian teams and losing to the hand-picked North American team North East Rush who is made up of some of the best footballers in North America and Canada. Unfortunately, the favourite USA team beat them 3-1 in the group stages but the girls managed to win the next stage games including beating the best Italian team and Irish team Yeats in the group. After a tense wait to see if they qualified for a place in the final following other group matches, Millmoor was informed of their second place overall in the group stages.
The girls arrived coming into the final as the underdogs again to face the North American team. The Millmoor girls surprised their opponents with their near-foot-perfect first half with them dominating and 1-0 up at the break with a great header. Second-half Rush came out flying off the blocks and really came at the girls who stuck in weathered their 10/15 minutes storm and then got back on the front foot adding a well-deserved second goal 13 minutes from time.
The girls saw out the final 13 minutes plus nearly 7 minutes of injury time without any massive scares to deservedly win the Gold Medal and San Marino Cup a great achievement for a local grassroots team from Rotherham! Management also included Year 13 student Leon Roper in his first major tournament with the Division 1 winning team.
