The dynasty continues.
The Swift Current Ardens continue to hold their place atop the Moose Jaw High School Athletic Association girls soccer league, thanks to a 4-1 victory over the Yorkton Regional Raiders in the championship final on Tuesday afternoon.
And with that, the Ardens have now claimed the league championship for 13 straight years -- a run of success unprecedented on the provincial high school sports scene.
But it definitely wasn’t easy this time around.
“Hats off to Yorkton, they came ready to play and were probably even a little bit more prepared than we were,” said Ardens co-coach Dale Perry. “I was kind of worried about it because we had blown them out earlier in the year when they were missing a bunch of players. They’re a pretty well-balanced team and they scared us, we were hanging on at the end.”
In the early going, it looked as if Swift Current had little to worry about. Two quick first-half goals by Navy Louma and Dani Meyer gave the Ardens a 2-0 lead, and it looked if they were off to the races.
But not long after the Ardens went up by a pair, Halima Kasim scored to get Yorkton back within one -- and all of a sudden the pressure was on.
Swift Current had plenty of chances through the rest of the game and had second-half goals from Rachel Nobel and Jaycee Berggren, but the Raiders had enough time in the Ardens’ half to make things uncomfortable.
“I think the players were aware that we were slightly better, but I don’t know what happened to our finishing,” Perry said of things remaining so close despite opportunities. “When we played them in the first game of the season, our finishing was as probably as good as it has ever been… We missed some shots that I didn’t think were possible to miss, the soccer gods definitely weren’t shining on us.”
Thing is, when you have as much talent as the Ardens have had through the last decade-plus, sometimes you can find a way to win even in the face of dangerous opposition -- and that’s something the Ardens will be hoping to see when it comes to 5A provincial playoffs the rest of the season.
Up next are regionals and provincials, with Swift Current hoping this will be the year they’re able to break through against teams from Saskatoon and Regina.
“The thing is, when you have to go up against those big city teams, it’s so much more physical and so much faster, and until you play against them you don’t know what you’re in for,” Perry said. “So we’ll just go out and play as hard as we can and see what we can do.”
