The YRHS Lady Raiders knew they were in tough at the 2015 SHSAA 3A Girls鈥� Soccer Provincials in Swift Current this past weekend as the eighth seed, but that fact didn鈥檛 bother them in the slightest.
And while they ultimately finished the tournament without scoring a single goal in 7-0 and 1-0 losses, head coach Michael Chapman said he couldn鈥檛 be happier with how things went. 鈥淗onestly I couldn鈥檛 have been more pleasantly surprised with the way it went down,鈥� offered Chapman. 鈥淭he girls, they put their best effort forward and just gave it everything they had and although we didn鈥檛 manage to tally a goal it was still a good showing.鈥�
The Raiders opened the tournament up against the eventual provincial champion Saskatoon Centennial and quickly fell behind 1-0 before going toe-to-toe with the top ranked team in the province. 鈥淲e gave up one quick one but then about half an hour in the game it was still 1-0 and the girls were holding their own going back and forth and you could see Saskatoon was getting a little frustrated,鈥� mentioned Chapman, adding that the 7-0 score makes the game look more one-sided than it actually was. 鈥淗onestly three of those goals were kind of fluky. There were balls that got cleared off defenders that went into the cage and other stuff that doesn鈥檛 normally happen but I guess to sum it up I thought the girls played really strong all weekend long.鈥�
Following the 7-0 loss to Centennial the Raiders were matched up with Regina LeBoldus and despite a strong defensive effort the Lady Raiders simply could not find a way to put a ball into the opposing net, falling 1-0 to wrap up their 2015 soccer season.
The Regional will now graduate several players, but coach Chapman feels the program is poised for great things in the future. 鈥淲e do turn over about half the team but a lot of the core pieces like some of our defence and our keeper and some of our midfield, they鈥檙e still around for next year,鈥� said Chapman. 鈥淲e are losing some players but we have a lot of pieces that remain that we can build around for future seasons and this experience at provincials will also help the team next year because they鈥檒l know what they have to do and what they can expect.鈥�
Boys
The YRHS Raiders boys鈥� soccer team also took part in their provincial tournament this past weekend.
The boys entered their competition as medal hopefuls but were unceremoniously dropped from the medal round by Saskatoon Centennial 3-0.
That loss meant that the Raiders were no longer able to win a provincial medal. That fact showed in their consolation round game against Prince Albert Carlton as the Raiders ended their season with a 4-1 defeat.
