Resilience was on full display for the Knights on the soccer pitch last week.
With a depleted lineup, the Holy Trinity Academy Knights girls soccer squad battled back from a backbreaking loss in the league final to a silver medal finish at the South Central Zone Championship while playing four games over three days.
“It definitely took a lot of willpower to get through all those games in a few days,” said Grade 12 Knight Lainey Fischer. “Our roster was not very full as there’s a lot of girls on our team who have commitments outside of school soccer.
“We were running with a pretty short bench, there were a lot of players who had to play 90-minute games, which took a lot out of us, but everyone was really good about having each other’s backs and understanding that everyone is tired, but still trying their best.”
The Knights opened the tournament with a pair of 1-0 victories backstopped by smart defending and timely goalkeeping by Josie Smith.
“We always talk about trying to outwork the person across from you,” said Knights coach Brandon Heembrock. “Just listening to direction and giving up what’s not super dangerous, in soccer, it’s letting teams go out wide and not have the middle of the field.
“A lot of defending is just heart and that’s what they had, and Josie made some really good saves at key times in all of our games.”
First, they knocked off Airdrie’s George McDougall Mustangs and then edged the Canmore Wolverines in their third meeting of the week with the league rivals.
“Canmore was definitely our most difficult competition throughout the entire season,” Fischer said. “It was always Canmore and HTA, and we did a tie, a win, a loss in the banner game. Playing them for the second time in two days, it really was a relief to win.”
Canmore edged HTA 2-1 in overtime last Thursday to claim the Foothills Athletic Council league banner after the Knights earlier in the week scored a 1-0 triumph to finish with the top regular season mark.
“When we lost it was heartbreaking, but, for me, the main thing is winning the league over eight games that was more important,” said Heembrock. “It was a really tough way to lose and I told them that they had that night to think about it, cry about it, worry about it.
“But at 10:15 the next day we put our cleats back on and it was in the past and we were moving forward.”
In the final, Springbank, a perennial power at zones, scored three early goals and held off a strong surge to earn the 3-1 result. Canmore took bronze in overtime over George Mac.
“I feel like we were really proud,” Fischer said. “As a team, we did grow a lot. I’m pretty sure 50 per cent of the team was Grade 10s, as a team we learned to really understand each other and there was good chemistry.”
