You can now add silver to the golden age of Sutherland soccer.
The incredible, improbable run of the Sabres senior boys soccer team came to an end Saturday with a 3-0 loss to Surrey's Panorama Ridge in the provincial AAA final at Burnaby Lake Sports Complex West.
The magic began last season when the Sabres — a AA-size team that hadn't won a North Shore title at any level since 1997 — made the bold move of jumping up to the top AAA ranks and commenced mowing down opponents, winning the North Shore banner before going on to claim the provincial title with a thrilling overtime win against Burnaby Central. Most of the players from that team returned this year and the Sabres stayed hot all the way to the provincial final where they finally met their match. Kerman Pannu put on a virtuoso performance for Panorama Ridge, scoring a golden hat trick to give the Thunder their first ever provincial AAA title.
Though this Sabres squad ended up losing its last game, head coach Bill Mahon told his players that they have a lot to be proud of over the past two seasons.
"I just hope they're proud of the good run they had," he told the North Shore News shortly after gathering his team at midfield for one final talk. "On the day (Panorama) was the better team than us. I just told the guys to hold their heads high."
The Sabres and Thunder scrapped through a tight first half Saturday and looked to be headed to halftime in a scoreless tie before Sutherland was whistled for a foul just outside their 18-yard box with two minutes left in the 40-minute half. Pannu stepped up and hit a cracker of a free kick that sailed over the wall before dipping under the crossbar just inside the near post. It was a momentum-swinging moment, said Mahon.
"If we go to the half 0-0, things may have changed," he said.
Sutherland came on strong to start the second half but failed to generate any great opportunities and instead found themselves down 2-0 when Pannu leapt to nod a sweet header off the post and in with 15 minutes left in the game. Pannu finished the trick in the dying moments, blasting in another header off a corner kick before throwing his jersey in the air, happily receiving a yellow card for celebrating his championship-clinching goal.
In the aftermath of the loss, Mahon admitted that his team was outmatched on the day.
"They're a very good side — there's no weaknesses in their side," he said of the Thunder. "They closed our space quickly and we weren't able to do too much. It's tough for the boys, but that's the way it goes sometimes."
And so ends the miracle run — Mahon said that with most of his players graduating at the end of this year, the Sabres will drop back down to the AA level next season. The ride may be over, but it's one the coach won't soon forget.
"It's been awesome," he said, adding that he's followed many of these players through years of coaching community and school teams and he always knew they could do great things. "A lot of these boys we've coached since they were five or six years old. . . . We knew when these guys were going into Grade 8 there was a good nucleus here. It didn't come as a surprise."
That longtime core included standouts Ty Barbieri, Spencer Pow, Adam Logan, Ty Powell and Adam Swanson. Other stars added to the mix included goalkeeper Michael Girard, who now trains in the Whitecaps youth system, forward Dzenan Bezdrob and midfielder Travis Ladhar, both of whom suit up for Mountain United in the B.C. Premier Soccer League.
Those players are all moving on after this year but Mahon is hoping they will leave with fond memories.
"I talked to the boys this morning in the change room about enjoying the moment," he said. "High school memories — it's not necessarily about what you learn, it's about days like today. . . . Right now a lot of them are kicking themselves, thinking they should have done better, but hold your heads high. We came second, we were outplayed. It's hard when you're 17-and 18-year-old boys to swallow that, but that's what happened."
On the road to the final the Sabres went 3-0 in pool play, outscoring their opponents 7-1, before beating Dr. Charles Best 3-1 in a dominant semifinal performance. Sutherland's Pow was named to the Commissioner's 16 team.
North Vancouver's Handsworth also took part in the tournament, losing all three of their opening round games before coming back to blast Lake City 5-0 and Queen Elizabeth 7-0 to finish in 13th place. Handsworth's Jamie Barraclough earned the team's spot on the Commissioner's 16.
