The Yorkton Regional Raiders boys鈥� soccer team punched their tickets to the 2015 SHSAA 3A Boys Provincial tournament this past weekend with a 6-2 victory over the Balgonie Greenall Griffins in the Region D final.
The Raiders fell behind early when Balgonie took advantage of a defensive miscommunication, but rebounded with six goals, three off the talented foot of striker Spencer Steele, to eventually seal a commanding 6-2 victory.
For Steele the three goals were his first three of the season for his high school team as, due to prior commitments with his club team Queen City United, he was unable to participate in regular tournaments and games. 鈥淲e missed him this season, but for him to come back and score three in his first game back with us is great,鈥� offered YRHS Raider head coach Steven DeLong. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a special talent and any time you have a talent leading the front of your team it鈥檚 always important because everyone knows that if you defend hard enough then you can get the ball up front and someone can put the ball in the net for you and that鈥檚 what he did for us today.鈥�
Also scoring for the Raiders were Nader Ayari with two and Cole Burkholder with one, but while the Raiders eventually came out the victors 6-2, coach DeLong said he wasn鈥檛 quite happy with the overall performance of his club. 鈥淲e were down 1-0 right off the bat and although we came back to win we can鈥檛 do that at the Provincials,鈥� suggested DeLong. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to start 1-0 down to Carleton or St. Mary or any of the Saskatoon or Regina teams because 1-0 could be the final score.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e got their entire starting lineup made up of players from club teams and you鈥檙e playing against them so you have to put together a total 90 minute performance or you鈥檙e looking back and thinking 鈥榠f only we had started better we could have won鈥�.鈥�
With that being said, DeLong feels that his boys are capable of putting together a deep run at the 2015 3A Provincials in Weyburn this weekend and believes that if his team works hard, they can surpass last year鈥檚 semi-final appearance. 鈥淭his year the semi-final is where we want to be. We want to get back to the semi-final and this time we want to get the result we want and get through to the final,鈥� offered DeLong. 鈥淭here has never been a soccer Provincial title at the Regional so we know it鈥檚 not something that is expected of us, so we鈥檙e just going to go and take it one game at a time.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to get the quarterfinal over with, get into that semi-final again and this time get the job done and then see what the final brings.鈥�
The Raider boys鈥� first action will be Friday morning at 11:00a.m. against Saskatoon Centennial.
