The Collingwood Cavaliers senior girls are provincial AA field hockey champions again, winning the latest chapter of what has become an epic rivalry.
The Cavaliers topped Vancouver’s Crofton House Falcons 2-1 in the 2017 championship final Nov. 17 at Surrey’s Tamanawis Field. It was the third straight battle between the Lower Mainland private schools in the AA championship game, with Collingwood winning in 2015 and Crofton House returning the favour in 2016.
“It’s always fantastic game playing Crofton,” said Ashleigh Gold, Collingwood co-coach along with Catherine Underwood and Sara Bruner. “They bring out their best side, and (Crofton House coach) Andrew Schouten is extremely tactical. From a coaching perspective it’s really fun to play a team that is trying to tactically outplay you, because you have to think tactics as well.”
Heading into this year’s final it was the Falcons who had been soaring past the Cavaliers more often than not. Crofton House won last year’s final and beat Collingwood in two matches held near the start of this season. Those losses, particularly last year’s championship game, were fresh in the memory for several of the Collingwood coaches and players.
“Crofton beat us last year with less than 30 seconds to go,” said Gold, adding that many of the players from that game, on both teams, graduated last season, making room for substantially different rosters this year. “Both teams had a lot of new players. We had 11 new players – I think that was helpful because there wasn’t a lot of extra emotion going into the game. Where if you had only a few new players, the emotion can get quite high.”
The Cavaliers, however, still succumbed to a lot of early game jitters, falling behind 1-0 in the first half as Crofton House put on a high-intensity press.
“The girls were trying to stick to the game plan, but they were a little bit high strung, a little bit excited or anxious over the intensity of the game,” said Gold. “They were holding onto the ball just those one, two, three seconds too long, and so they were getting the ball taken away from them. Crofton put forward a huge press on our team, which rattled our team a little bit. They were able to turn over the ball and score on one of those, which then intensified the sort of stressed feeling that the girls were dealing with.”
At halftime the teamed talked about staying calm under pressure and using quick passes to open up the Crofton House defence.
“They just needed to play as a team, relax their grip, take a deep breath and play together,” said Gold. “And that’s exactly what happened. They calmed down, they saw the passes, they passed the ball early. They weren’t individuals, they were completely a team. It’s hard to beat 11 people on the field when the pass could go to anybody, and that’s exactly what was happening.”
Collingwood’s Kelsie Stephenson tied the game just five minutes into the second half, firing home a shot from the stroke mark off a broken short corner play. Less than 10 minutes later the Cavaliers took the lead, with Kaiden Stanley firing home the game winner.
“We broke their press open and there was nothing that Crofton could do to really slow us down at that point,” said Gold. “We had control, we were getting short corners. The girls were playing really composed hockey.”
As the clock ticked down it became clear that the Cavaliers were not going to be beaten.
“It was an incredible feeling to come back and win 2-1 after being down 1-0 at the half,” said Underwood. “The girls were determined, and realized that if they played like a team, they would have success. They had been in this position before, where they had been down a goal and managed to comeback. They knew that they could do it, and had visualized themselves in this moment.”
The coaches noted the leadership of the team’s four Grade 12 players, Stephenson, Chloe Szybunka, Jaimie Chrystal, and Megan Mauro.
“They just really brought the team together,” said Gold. “We couldn’t have done it without the leadership on the team.”
They way the team won the final – playing unselfish, ball-possession, passing field hockey – typified the team as a whole this season, said Gold.
“As a coaching staff Catherine, Sara and I have always, always stressed the team piece, and that you’re not individuals, but these girls really embraced it. They believed in each other, they would do anything for each other. They really were a tight unit. It was cool to see. Their passing skills and possession game, and just the way they moved the ball was really phenomenal for a young team. They trusted one another right to the end.”
That the Cavaliers ended up winning the title this year came as a bit of a surprise to the Collingwood coaches, who were expecting a rebuilding season with only four Grade 12 players on the roster along with several Grade 11s and 10s, and even a Grade 9.
“We were uncertain coming into the season,” said Gold. “We said, ‘OK, well it’s a rebuilding year.’ Our AD, partway through the season, said ‘You know, it looks like it’s not a rebuild year, but it’s a reboot year.’”
With another banner set to go up on the wall, the Cavaliers have a year to work towards accomplishing something the powerhouse program hasn’t done since 1997: win a repeat championship.
“We have a really strong program coming through right now, there are a lot of Grade 10s that are very good players, there are lot of Grade 11s that are very good players,” said Gold. “We’re really looking forward to what the returning players bring out the next few years. … Catherine, Sarah and I – none of us have ever seen a repeat. That would be a goal.”
