As hard as it is to lose in a provincial final, the Cowichan Secondary Thunderbirds were still able to recognize how much they achieved by finishing second at the AAA field hockey championships in Surrey last week.
“It’s always tough in a final,” Cowichan coach Caitlin Erickson said. “You’re really excited to be in the top two going into the game, because you know top-two in the province is a huge accomplishment.”
After sweeping through pool play and winning their first two playoff games to reach the final, the T-Birds were unable to unseat the defending champion Handsworth Royals, falling by a score of 2-0 in the gold-medal match.
The T-Birds missed some chances to score in the early going before Handsworth went up with two quick goals. Cowichan gradually got back in the game, but still couldn’t beat the Handsworth goalkeeper.
“It took us a bit to bounce back,” Erickson said. “We had opportunities, but we couldn’t put them in the net.”
Between the two schools, Cowichan and Handsworth have won the last six provincial titles: Cowichan in 2015 and 2016, and Handsworth in 2013, 2014, 2017 and again this year. The teams don’t play each other very often, but when they do, it’s always an important game.
“Sometimes we meet them at the Bridgman [Cup],” Erickson noted. “But the only other time we see them is at provincials.
“There’s excitement and energy because we know we have to play our top game if we want to beat them.”
The T-Birds easily won their first two games at provincials, beating Okanagan Mission and Centennial both by the maximum allowed five goals. Their first competitive match of the tournament came in the last game of pool play, a 1-0 win over South Delta, the eventual bronze medallists, on a goal by Arica Windsor.
“They were a strong defensive team,” Erickson said of South Delta. “It was hard for us to put more goals in.”
By winning their pool, the T-Birds moved to a quarter-final meeting with Argyle. The North Vancouver school shocked Cowichan by scoring first on their first threatening trip into the T-Birds’ end of the field, but Reese Nagy, Melanie Robertson and Chloe Langkammer answered back and Cowichan prevailed 3-1.
The semifinal between Cowichan and Kelowna on Friday morning was a rematch of last year’s semi. Kelowna won a year ago, but Cowichan turned the tables this time, winning by another 3-1 final score. Robertson and Langkammer scored the first two goals before Kelowna got on the board, and Sage Nowzek put the game away with a reverse shot.
That result led to the final against Handsworth. Despite the result of that game, the team has a lot to be proud of this season, Erickson emphasized.
“We’ve had tons of successes through the season,” she said. “Some of our best games were played at the provincial tournament. The girls should be happy with their success this year.”
The T-Birds will bid farewell to seven Grade 12s this season as Windsor, Nagy, Robertson, Annika Kneen, Keira Martin, Emily Cheneff and Karissa Birch all graduate.
“They’re all great leaders, so we lose a lot of leadership,” Erickson commented. “They’re all strong players who have been part of the team for three years. But we’ve got some strong Grade 9s coming up, and our Grade 11s are phenomenal, so they will step into the leadership roles the Grade 12s left.”
Team captain Robertson and co-captains Windsor and Birch were huge parts of the team’s success at provincials.
“The three of them are a great trio,” Erickson said. “They did a great job, especially at provincials, of leading the team, getting them pumped up, and leading by example on the field.”