The Moose Jaw High School Athletic Association boys and girls soccer leagues have a way of producing 4A provincial champions.
Year in and year out, teams from the local loop simply find a way to get things done.
You could have the Vanier Spirits finish in fourth place in the league and lose in the semifinal, only to string together nothing but victories through regionals and provincials and win the whole thing.
Or the Central Cyclones scrape and claw to beat 5A boys teams in league play, only to just roll through the competition when the games really start to matter in their own division.
Both teams will be looking for the same kinds of results when the run to provincials begins this weekend.
Moose Jaw will be hosting both the 4A girls and 4A boys regional tournaments this weekend at YaraCentre fields, with the top two teams advancing to provincials Oct. 27-28 in Humboldt for the boys and Regina for the girls.
The boys regional will feature six teams, including defending champion Central, Regina Huda, Regina Johnson, Regina Laval, Regina Luther and Yorkton Sacred Heart.
“It’s teams we haven’t seen all year and a couple we saw last year at regionals, so it’s nice to play new teams and get a chance to sort of reset from what we’ve been doing in the season,” said Central head coach Holly McCorriston. “We want to play our game, focus on that no matter who we’re playing. We’re confident in our game, just focussing on this will be refreshing and hopefully we can get to provincials.”
Central opens their 4A boys tournament at 3:30 p.m. Friday against Regina Johnson, with the winner advancing to face Regina Luther in the semifinal and provincial qualifying game at 11 a.m. Saturday. The regional final will be for provincial seeding purposes and goes at 3:30 p.m.
The girls 4A regional will be a four-team event, featuring Vanier, Regina Luther, Yorkton Sacred Heart and Regina Johnson.
The entirety of that qualifier will be played Saturday, with Vanier taking on Luther and Yorkton facing Regina in the semifinals at 9 a.m. The two provincial qualifiers will play for seeding at 3:30 p.m.
For the full schedule and score updates, be sure to check www.shsaaa.ca.
