After two years of heartbreaking near misses, the Lady Saints soccer team finally climbed to the top of Saskatchewan high school soccer and won the 2A Girls Provincial title as hosts over the weekend with a commanding 4-1 victory over defending three time champions Bishop Mahoney from Saskatoon.
Four teams advanced to the provincial finals on the basis of Regional play the weekend earlier with the Saints drawing Notre Dame in the final four with a spot to play in the provincial final on the line.
The Saints got off to a slow start against the Notre Dame Hounds. The Hounds found the back of the net after just two minutes and then again at the six minute mark. Playing into a stiff wind and finding themselves two goals down so quickly in the game, the Saints had to play catch up. They netted a goal by Bryce Sherring on a beautiful through ball feed from Rita Fetsch to make the score 2-1. Before the half ended, the Hounds scored again and took a 3-1 lead into half time.
With the wind the Saints turned things around thanks to an out of this world performance from their leading scorer Rita Fetsch.
Fetsch, one of the top girls players in the province, netter four straight unanswered goals as the Saints responded from a huge hole to roar back to a thrilling 5-3 win.
In the other semi-final, Saskatoon Bishop Mahoney defeated Moose Jaw Central 2-1 to advance to the Gold medal final against the Saints, setting up a rematch between the Saints and Mahoney from the following year.
In the Final the Saints met the two time champion Saskatoon Bishop Mahoney who were going for the three peat. In last year's final the Saints dropped a close one to Bishop but this year was a different story.
Bishop started strong and controlled the ball through the middle with a lot of nice touches and great controlled passing.
The Saints however took control of the game in the first half. Rita Fetsch continued her goal scoring prowess and netted 2 goals in the first half and the Saints took a 2-0 lead into the second half. Midway through the second half, Kristen Jonassen hit the top right hand corner of the net on a beautiful shot from 30 yards out. Bryce Sherring added a goal to complete the scoring for the Saints. With time running out in the game, Bishop found the net with a goal but it was too little, too late.
The Saints team won their first ever girls soccer championship. In the two previous years they had captured provincial bronze in 2011 and silver in 2012.
Many of the senior players played key roles. Morgan Shymanski was very solid as central defender, clearing the ball when needed and directing traffic at the back. Kristen Jonassen completed her excellent season by controlling the middle and being the best two way player on the field. Rita Fetsch continued to lead her team offensively as she has all season. Kaylee Ford moved from midfield to defense and had her best game of the season. Rookies (Gr 9) Darrian Desjarlais and JJ Chogata impressed with their strong play and played with maturity beyond their years.
In the end the Saints soccer program continued what has been a strong era for the program. SHHS now has three tiles combined with the boys back to back titles in 2010/11. After some near misses, it was finally the girls moment.
