High school soccer teams ready for provincials

Four soccer teams from the area will be vying for a provincial title this weekend around the province, as the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association hosts their annual championships.

For Maymont Cougars head coach Ryan Nickell, just seeing his team make it to the 1A girls’ tournament in Martensville is a major accomplishment given the amount of changes that have happened from last year’s squad that hosted the provincials.

“We’ve come a long way in a short amount of time,” Nickell said. “We lost a few players to graduation and we had a fairly young roster, so we expected this to be a learning season for the girls.

“They play a really good team game. We may not have a ton of players on the roster given the size of our school, but everyone’s focused on doing what they need to do every time they get to the field.”

The Cougars clinched their spot in the provincials Friday by winning a semifinal game by a score of 3-2 over Ahtahkakoop in North Battleford.

In the championship, Chief Little Pine turned in a dominating performance as they cruised to a 7-1 triumph.

“Both teams had a lot of scoring chances on Friday, but we were able to come away with the win,” Nickell said.

“Chief Little Pine’s a strong team and we actually kept it close for the first half, but they were able to pull away in the second half of the game.”

Both schools will be competing at the provincials in Martensville, with Maymont taking on the Warman Panthers in a quarter-final contest Friday and Chief Little Pine going up against the Waldheim Raiders later in the day.

“It’s a really strong field and I think we’ll both be in tough in our games,” Nickell said. “However, I think if we can come away with a strong performance, it will be something we can build on going forward.”

Meanwhile, the John Paul II Crusaders of North Battleford will be travelling to Yorkton to compete in the 2A boys’ tournament that will be hosted by Sacred Heart High School.

The Crusaders came away with a regional title in Martensville last Saturday following a 3-2 win over Se Se Wa Hum and a 5-4 triumph over the host Royals.

“I had some high expectations for our boys coming into the season, but I didn’t want the guys to know that before we started playing,” Crusaders head coach Shalen Fox said.

“We’re a little bit of an older team than in previous years, which has made a huge difference for us. We also never give up in games, which is something that was really noticeable in Martensville as we came back to win both games in some pretty bad weather conditions.”

Awaiting the Crusaders in the provincial quarter-finals Friday are the Notre Dame Hounds of Wilcox, who they haven’t played this year.

“The one team we know a little bit about is Sacred Heart,” Fox said. “They are the defending champions and we got to see them a little bit at their home tournament earlier this year, and they look really strong again.

“The biggest thing I want to see from our guys is a full 90-minute effort. We can’t afford to come out the gates slow against the teams that are going to be in Yorkton. We’re a lot more relaxed when we have the lead and aren’t chasing, as we end up making it a lot harder on ourselves.”

North Battleford will also be represented at the 1A boys’ event in Middle Lake by Sakewew High School.

As the hosts for a regional tournament last weekend, Sakewew made it to the regional final where they lost a thrilling 5-4 encounter to Ahtahkakoop.

Sakewew will be taking on the tournament host Three Lakes Avengers in a quarter-final game Friday.