Aldergrove United Girls will play in the Coastal Cup final.

They clinched their spot on Sunday morning, April 27, with a hard-earned win over the North Van Riptide.

It was a defensive battle that ended 0-0 at full time, then went to an epic-length shootout, where Aldergrove won with their ninth shooter.

They will now play for the Cup on Sunday, May 4.

It was another gritty victory by Aldergrove, a small U14 soccer team in both roster size and physical stature, who have had to fill out their numbers with 12-year-old players just to field a full squad. 

But on the pitch, they have become a force to be reckoned with.

"It has been 10 years since the club has had a team go this far," said Brian Hunter, Aldergrove Youth Soccer Club coach, calling it  "very much a David versus Goliath story."

As team coach Kevin Burgham described it, the plan was to be a "decently competitive" team, even though they have to bring in underage players to provide a full complement.

"We have a core group of 13- and 12-year-old girls that have been together now for a few years," Burgham explained.

"This U14 age group for Aldergrove just doesn't have a lot of girls involved in soccer, so we've always had a very small roster which includes three girls playing  one year up just so we can have a team in the league."  

In November, United U14 had their first cup game, which was a knock-out qualification match for the Coastal Cup against a strong Guildford team,

"We added four U13 call ups to our permanent Cup roster and we played a home game," said Burgham. 

They managed to keep the game 1-1 and take them into a shoot-out for the win. 

Then, the underdogs from Aldergrove entered the Coastal Cup Round of 16 as the 14th seed on April 6, playing an away game in a heavy downpour against third-seeded North Van, and beat them, 2-1.

That took United to the quarter finals on April 12, playing number six seed Burnaby that they tied 1-1 before winning the shoot out.

Burgham praised the U13 call-ups as "integral to our success so far." 

"They are a smaller-than-average team in height and roster size but collectively they are a force to be reckoned with," he summarized.

"They are speedy, they are athletic and most importantly, they work hard for each other."