Through the first part of the Moose Jaw high school girls soccer league championship final on Saturday afternoon, things were extremely interesting.
Not only did the Yorkton Regional Raiders score the first goal of the game, they were giving the Swift Current Ardens all they could handle in the early going. And if you know the Ardens’ history in the local league, you know just how unusual that is.
But, in the end, Swift Current was Swift Current, and the 12-time defending champions would go on to a 9-2 victory, also winning their 15th title in league history.
“It ended up being a bit of a blowout, but it certainly wasn’t to start with,” said Ardens head coach Dale Perry. “They gave us everything at the beginning of the game, they scored first and came back to tie it at two, but we just slowly kept working at it. Maybe we just had better fitness, and when you’re winning it’s easier to play a bit harder as opposed to coming from behind.”
The Ardens ended up taking a 4-2 lead out of the first half and were able to hold Yorkton scoreless while limiting their chances after the break.
Olivia Koebel scored four times for Swift Current, including a hat trick in the second half, while Dani Meyer had a pair of goals to go along with single markers from Bryn Haubrich, Tenille Willows and Heidi Spetz.
Lacy Westvelt and Hadiza Kasim scored for Yorkton.
The contest capped a season that teams throughout the league were just happy to get in in light of the ongoing pandemic.
“It’s been fun and we’re pretty proud to be able to pull it off again,” Perry said. “And it’s nice to see Yorkton here, the extra teams coming in, getting the league built up makes it that much more fun and that much more competitive… now there’s regionals and provincials, there’s still some stuff to do and we’re looking forward to it.”
