The only thing better than one gold medal is two gold medals.
The Sacred Heart (SHHS) boys' soccer team was hoping for that to happen when they were awarded the right to host this year's Saskatchewan High School Athletics Association (SHSAA) boys' provincial soccer tournament.
Involved in the competition was: SHHS Saints, Moose Jaw Central, Notre Dame, Regina Miller, Regina O'Neill, Warman, North Battleford's Pope John Paul II and Saskatoon's Evan Hardy.
The tournament was held this past weekend.
The gold medal match would come down to the first team playing the last team listed.
The SHHS had a bit at stake. They went in as defending champs. Turns out they could go into next year's competition as defending champs too. According to Nathan Ruff, who had the entire tournament resting on the strength of his foot, they will be looking pretty good for next season, too.
Over the weekend, Ruff and his team faced the Marauders of Regina in the opener. Five-nothing win for SHHS. Preston Liebrecht scored twice, Ruff added two and Anthony Fetsch got one. Keeper Brock Liebrecht was in goal.
"They were what we expected," offered Ruff. "They were good. We were just better."
The tempo picked up about 10 times and then some for match number two SHHS Saints vs. Moose Jaw Central, Ruff told the newspaper.
"It was very physical. We were trailing up until the second half."
The game got very physical. Robert Okeny was red carded, meaning he was going to spend some time on the bench. Not good news for SHHS. Ruff said Okeny missed half of the second half.
"They are a really, really skilled team," says Ruff, adding that "their keeper was good".
He said that presented a tough challenge on "me, Preston (Liebrecht) and Anthony (Fetsch)."
"It was the hardest match," offered SHHS coach Alfredo Bermudez. "It was a good game. A tight game. Amazing!"
Moose Jaw opened the scoring in the first half, Okeny had tied it on another one of his blistering penalty kicks and Logan Coutts found a way to win it when his shot found its way past a startled MJ goalkeeper and literally trickled in just past the goal line.
"It was very stressful," Bermudez said moments after the huge win. "It proves (you should) never give up. We do what we have to do."
"We definitely went into defensive mode with six minutes remaining (in the match)," recalls Ruff, who credited the defence which included Elias Giannoulis and Carter McKay in the middle.
Two wins, zero losses put SHHS into the gold medal match where they would go up against Evan Hardy Collegiate (Saskatoon).
"They were very similar to last year," recalls Ruff who added that a lot of SHHS's players have been "playing together since we were little kids".
It probably worked to their advantage come crunch time because if any of them were going to wilt under pressure, it would have been when they went into the shoot out.
This match went as far as a soccer match could possibly go.
Says Dean DePape, co-coach of the SHHS Saints: "Preston scored midway through the first half. The score stayed that way until three minutes to go in the game when Evan Hardy scored off a free kick to tie the game."
Ruff said it was another physical game. "Elias got carded but we led 1-0 early."
Yorkton held onto the lead until late in the second half, when Saskatoon evened things up.
"After 2-10 minute overtime halves, the score remained 1-1 so penalty kicks were required to determine the winner," said DePape.
Almost every SHHS shooter made good on their shot, says DePape. For both teams.
"Anthony Fetsch went first and scored, EH then shot and scored, Preston shot and scored followed by a goal by EH. Jacob Okeny shot and scored EH shot and missed so we were up by one. Elias Giannoulis shot next and was stopped EH shot and hit the post."
That was when it came down to a potential provincial-winning shot.
"So we only needed to score on more goal and it was up to Nathan Ruff. Nathan took his shot and scored which made us the Provincial champions."
"I just kept it simple," offered Ruff, making it sound like scoring an OT winner to take the provincials was child's play. Don't "try anything fancy and aim right side lower," he said with a smile.
DePape added that it was nervewracking going into it but it wasn't like nobody wearing SHHS colours thought they didn't have a chance to repeat.
"Going into the shoot out I was nervous but knew we had a great opportunity to win as we have some of the best goal scorers in the province," offers coach DePape.
"Our defence was strong all weekend long. Our defence (Elias Giannoulis, Carter MacKay, Carter Ruff, Bretten Hull) and keeper Brock Liebrecht made some fantastic plays to give us the opportunity win. It was sort of ironic as all year we relied on our high scoring offence to win games for us but it was our defence that came up big and allowed us to win our championship." Ruff said the overtime was hard to get through because Saskatoon played higher octane after having earned the right to force the overtime, but Liebrecht came up big and had some help in OT.
