An old North Shore rivalry has a devilish new twist this season as senior girls soccer teams from around B.C. begin their playoff pushes in hopes of making the provincial championships.
Last year two perennial powerhouses from North Vancouver made it to provincials with Handsworth winning silver and Argyle finishing seventh.
This year’s qualification process, however, will have more of a Hunger Games feel to it as one of the North Shore/Burnaby/New West provincial spots has already been allocated to a Burnaby host team, leaving the rest of the squads to fight for just one spot. There will be several contenders – including the North Shore’s top-three AAA squads Argyle, Handsworth and Sentinel – but only one will get to go on to fight for provincial gold.
“The numbers crunched down and we only get one berth, which kind of sucks – there are two very good teams in our zone,” said Argyle head coach Darren Rath, whose Pipers finished first on the North Shore with an undefeated record. “As much as I’d like Handsworth to be at provincials as well, I want to be there and I’d like our girls to be there. It kind of sucks that way. … It’d be nice to have (Handsworth) there. We were both there last year, we were both top-eight teams in the province.”
The Pipers look to be frontrunners as they enter the playoffs – they went undefeated in North Shore league play, scoring 18 goals in six games while allowing just one.
“The team has played well,” said Rath. “They play back to front, lots of depth, good chemistry. There’s a lot of good players on our team. … You can’t complain when you win first place – that’s what we want.”
Defensive stalwarts Kiana Mackay, Emma Archer, Mya Fraser and Nicola Hustwait anchor the team, said Rath, with Teagan Mackay and Lauren Parr providing a lot of the fireworks up front.
“They play very, very good football – it would be a shame if we couldn’t make it (to provincials),” said Rath.
If the Pipers somehow don’t make provincials the Handsworth Royals will likely have something to do with it. Handsworth placed second in the North Shore league, scoring 14 goals and giving up four in their six matches. Five of the players from last year’s silver-medal-winning team graduated but a strong core remained this season, said head coach Brian Gibbard. Last year the Royals finished second on the North Shore and went on a stirring run to the provincial final. Gibbard is hoping the team can repeat that performance this year.
“We’re playing well in fits and starts,” he said. “We’re erratic this year, but we were last year going into the playoffs and found our game and continued to improve. We’re working at it and hope the same thing will happen this year.”
The Royals are led by a strong central core running from midfielder Jamie Foot to centre back Audrey Sawers to goalkeeper Jenelle Hagerman, said Gibbard.
Handsworth will begin their playoffs with a game against another tough North Shore team, the Sentinel Spartans. Kickoff is Wednesday starting at 3 p.m. at Ambleside Park field D. The Royals beat the Spartans once in regulation play and once in overtime during regular season action, but both games were tight, low scoring affairs.
“We really need to finish our chances,” Gibbard said about Handsworth’s playoff showdown against the Spartans. “The last time we played Sentinel we took an awful lot of shots and only scored two goals. This time I think if we can keep playing well defensively – which I think we have been most of the year – and we finish our chances, I like our chances.”
Whoever wins that matchup will move on to play the top team from the Burnaby/New West district May 15. The winner of that game will have one more final hurdle to clear to make provincials, taking on the winner of Argyle’s May 15 matchup against the No. 2 Burnaby/New West team in a winner-take-all-zone final May 17 at 3 p.m. at Ambleside E.
With only one provincial berth available instead of the usual two, there is no room for error for any of the teams in this year’s playoffs.
“They’re all sudden death,” said Gibbard. “If we lose to Sentinel, we’re out.”
There’s a lot of soccer to play, but the two North Vancouver rivals have acknowledged the very real possibility that they’ll be battling each other in a high stakes game come May 17.
“Argyle and Handsworth have quite a rivalry,” said Gibbard. “Argyle always has a strong team, so we’ll see. … They’re always well organized, their defence is really good. Darren Rath is a good coach, he’s got them well organized. We don’t get many chances when we play against them and we haven’t done a great job of finishing our chances when we have. They’re fast. They have one of the best players in the league in Teagan Mackay, she’s always a handful for us, she’s a very strong player.”
The Royals, made up entirely of Grade 11 and 12 players, have age on their side against the Pipers, who have 12 players in Grade 11 and 12 and eight in Grade 9 and 10.
“They’re a bigger team than us, but we’ve done very well against them,” said Rath. “They’re always a challenging team, they’re always a strong program. It’s always a good game to play.”
No matter what happens, at least one of these North Vancouver powers will be at home when the provincials are played May 31-June 2 at Burnaby Lake Sports Complex West.
“I’d say there are 8-10 (top) teams in the province and any one on any given day could win the game,” said Rath. “We’ve just got to hope that we perform to our ability and we get the results, because we have a very good team and it would be very disappointing if we didn’t make it to provincials because these girls deserve to be there.”
