It was silver and bronze for the Handsworth and Argyle senior girls field hockey teams at the provincial championships held last weekend in Duncan, both North Shore squads having their title hopes swept aside by a golden goalie.
The Handsworth Royals, appearing in their fifth straight AAA provincial championship final, claimed silver for the second year in a row after losing a shootout against the Cowichan Thunderbirds. The final game was scoreless through 60 minutes of play and went straight to a shootout where Cowichan keeper Robin Fleming, a member of Canada’s junior national development team, shut the door on the Royals.
“They have a big weapon in their goaltender,” said Handsworth head coach Graham Walker. “We played a great game against them. We had several breakaways and several penalty corners with very good shots on net, but we just could not put the ball by her. She made some excellent, excellent saves.”
The same fate befell the Argyle Pipers who were shut out 2-0 by Cowichan in the semifinals before bouncing back to claim bronze with a 3-1 win over Kelowna. West Vancouver rounded out a strong showing overall for the North Shore, winning their opening round pool before going on to finish seventh.
“Three in the top seven – that’s a great outcome for the North Shore schools,” said Walker.
Argyle struggled early in the tournament, posting a 1-1-1 record in pool play, but turned it around starting with a 3-1 win over West Vancouver in the quarterfinals.
“I was really happy for Argyle,” said Walker. “They had a tougher tournament but they pulled it out and obviously played really, really well by the end of the tournament.”
As for Handsworth, they opened the tournament with an easy 8-1 win over Sardis but the Royals were in for tough tests the rest of the way.
They scored 2-1 wins over both Heritage Woods and Frances Kelsey to take top spot in their pool before beating McMath 3-1 in the quarterfinals and Kelowna 1-0 in the semis.
“I think we deserved to win all the games that we won for sure – they were tight, but we did a really good job defensively and a really good job offensively,” said Walker. “We did manage to really control the play when it was critical to, and we got up early in most of the games, which was good. We were always that one little step ahead.”
The Royals, however, couldn’t take the final step against Cowichan, but the players were satisfied that they left it all on the field, said Walker.
“All the girls were extremely proud of how they played and knew they played extremely well,” he said. “My goal, which was a lofty goal, was to finish somewhere in the top three if possible. So I was ecstatic for the team, I really think they played above and beyond themselves. We obviously set our goals high every year but we did have a really young team this year. Most of the players had not played together before and they really developed into a strong, cohesive team…. We don’t have players who are outstanding individuals. Everybody plays as a unit, as a team, and they just developed so well during the season and by the end of the season they were at peak form. It got us to the final in a game which we played really, really well.”
The back-to-back silvers come after the Royals won three straight provincial titles from 2011 to 2013. The odds look favourable for Handsworth to continue their finals streak next season as this year’s team featured only four Grade 12 players on the roster and just six players back from last year’s silver medal squad. This year’s team was led by Grade 11 defender Hana Davis and Grade 10 attacker Erin Dawson, said Walker, adding that there are 12 Grade 11 players on this year’s team who should be back for another shot at gold next season.
“That’ll be fantastic – it’ll be a really good base for the team for the 2016 season,” he said. “I think we’ll have a good, strong senior team next year. The junior program is excellent. We have two really good junior teams with players in 8, 9 and 10 coming up, lots and lots of kids part of the field hockey program at Handsworth. The future looks really good.”
