The Queen Margaret’s School senior ‘A’ boys soccer team is headed to the BC High School Provincial Championships following a third place finish at the seven-team Island ‘A’ Championships the school hosted Oct. 16-17.
QMS’s new athletic director Lucy Smith said the two-day round robin tournament at Sherman Fields was “an enthusiastic festival of great soccer and sportsmanship” as the teams competed for three coveted berths to provincials, to be held Nov. 1-3 in Aldergrove.
Pacific Christian School, St. John’s Academy, Cedar Community School, Duncan Christian School, QMS, Nanaimo Christian School, Ucluelet Secondary and North Island Secondary School had all earned spots in the Island tournament after regular season play.
Smith said it became clear by the end of the first day, that both SJA and PCS would make it through with a close three-way battle heating up between NCS, DCS and QMS to duke it out for the finals on Day 2.
Day 2’s early games confirmed PCS and SJA would play for the gold medal. In wet and muddy conditions, NCS and DCS came up against each other to decide who would go against QMS in the bronze medal match. That contest needed penalty kicks to break a 3-3 tie.
“The field was lined with fans as DCS won the PK’s and moved into the bronze medal afternoon match against QMS,” Smith said.
SJA ultimately prevailed over a very strong PCS team in the final but all eyes were on the two Cowichan teams.
QMS and DCS, who are familiar rivals, played an excellent match, with QMS earning the coveted final berth to provincials in a 6-1 win.
“It was great to see our boys come together as a team after losing a close match against PCS and to get a decisive win against DCS in the bronze medal match,” said QMS coach Nick Zuback. “They have all worked very hard this year and it will be exciting to see them compete at provincials again.”
DCS ended in fourth, NCS was fifth, Ucluelet sixth, NISS seventh and Cedar placed eighth.
Smith, who organized the event, was very happy with the two days of soccer.
“Not only was it a lot of fun to allow these kids the opportunity to play soccer in a championship format,” she said, “It was also wonderful to see the level of respect, sportsmanship and leadership shown by all the teams. It really affirms that organized school level sport is both a character building and positive element to the development of students and athletes.”