Victories earlier in the week would put the Lasalle Lancers and Lockerby Vikings on a playoff collision course in the Open Girls Second Division soccer ranks as quarter-final play on Friday narrowed the field to just four teams.

In the end, the experience of the Lancers paid off, defeating an energetic but quite young Lockerby side by a final score of 3-1, earning a berth for Lasalle in the semi-finals on Monday.

Earlier this week, the Lancers rode a three goal performance from Izzy Roy to a 5-1 win over the Champlain Requins with Kaylee Vaillancourt and Amelia Belland netting one goal apiece before Ella Dionne countered for Champlain.

"I think our team right now is very good," said Belland, a 16 year old grade ten student who moved to Sudbury from Oshawa some five years ago. "We have great communication. We were bunching up, but we've been trying to fix that and it's much better now."

A competitive player in her youth who opted to focus on the multi-sport offerings that secondary schools can provide, Belland is embracing the chance to strut her stuff with senior Lancers - and very helpful ones, at that.

"There's girls in grade nine; there's girls in grade 12 or even 13 - so there's a lot of different skill levels," she said. "It gives me a chance to challenge myself."

In this particular contest, Belland would take a pass from Roy, finding the back of the net to make it 4-0 before tackling a positional switch as coaches looked to give others a chance.

"I'm pretty versatile," she said. "Wherever you want me, I can play that position ... except goalie. I'm not a goalie. I was playing midfield and they wanted to give someone else a chance to score."

"Of course I'll play some defense because I do have some defensive background. When I was younger, I played more defense but as I got older, I played more offense."

Another young lady with a background in competitive soccer, Lockerby freshman Eva Haraschuk is also quite happy to be contributing with teammates a few years her elder.

While she did score on Monday as Lockerby blanked the Macdonald-Cartier Panthères 3-0, she was clearly a factor for anyone that watched the game, distributing the ball regularly as teammates Izzy Lanteigne (following a lengthy free kick from Bella Kasunich), Lorelai van Drunen and Layla Emadhoun handled the offense (Paisley Anderson recorded the shutout).

"The seniors really help you," said Haraschuk. "It's easy to come out for the team because they've done it before, so that helps."

At least as big a help is the fact that the Vikings are coached by former Laurentian men's coach Carlo Castrechino and Voyageurs soccer alumnus Brad Smith, sharing a boatload of knowledge in a very short season.

"The coaches have really helped us on drills and stuff," said Haraschuk. "They really get us prepared."

That should pay dividends in years to come after Lasalle benefitted from a pair of goals from Caitlyn Connors, eliminating Lockerby on Friday afternoon.

In other QF play, the Champlain Requins edged the St Benedict Bears 3-2 and the Lively Hawks blanked Macdonald-Cartier 3-0 while the Sacré-Coeur Griffons - Marymount Regals matchup was not yet showing a final score.