Had it not been for the Diamond Jenness Secondary School Panthers, it would have been a Yellowknife sweep.
The Elks Outdoor Soccer Tournament wrapped up in Hay River on Sept. 23, bringing to an end the first territorial scholastic sports championship of the season. Teams from Yellowknife won all but two of the banners up for grabs on the Tri-Service, Princess Alexandra and Diamond Jenness soccer fields.
Those other two stayed in Hay River as the Panthers captured the boys and girls A high school titles. Both of those victories came at the expense of St. Pat's High School of Yellowknife as the boys won, 2-0, while the girls ended up winners, 4-0.
The Panthers boys ran the table in their division, winning all four of their games on the road to victory.
Coach Kelvin Yee said he noticed something funny before the championship game started as it appeared St. Pat's tried to gain an early advantage.
“In all of our games, we had sat on the side of the field where the bleachers were,” he said. “St. Pat's beat us to that side before the game began and we had to go over to the other side. I don't know if it was superstition of anything like that but I thought it was funny.”
Once the action on the field began, both teams had to fight a strong south wind which affected the passing ability in the air.
Yee said he told his boys to try and keep it on the ground as much as possible.
“I've played outdoor soccer many times and I knew the wind would be a problem,” he said. “The goalkeepers were having a hard time kicking the ball out so we tried to keep it on the ground as much as we could.”
There was an instance in one semifinal where a goalkeeper kicked it in the air and the wind almost put it into his own net, he added.
“That's when you know the wind's bad,” he said.
Diamond Jenness did all of their scoring in the first half and managed to hold down the fort in the second half although St. Pat's came knocking several times.
“They started to really push us,” said Yee. “I just told the boys to stay on them and every chance the defence got, get the ball down field and let our forwards do the work. We didn't want to sit back but we wanted to keep (St. Pat's) on the run.”
Yee's outfit was pretty close to the one he had last year with a couple of changes due to graduating players. He also had the help of four players from Fort Resolution, who joined the team for the tournament.
“Those four boys played really well and were a big help,” said Yee.