BRHS senior boys ‘threepeat’ as provincial soccer champions

By Geoffrey Agombar

The Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

Saturday afternoon, in front of a hometown crowd, the Bridgetown Regional High School Senior Boys soccer team scored a narrow victory to clinch an incredible third-straight Division III provincial championship.

After 90 minutes of regulation play and two 15-minute sudden-death overtime periods, Bridgetown and Port Hawkesbury’s Straight Area Education and Recreation Centre (SAERC) were still tied 1-1. This drove the game to a shoot-out to determine the champion. Bridgetown’s fifth shooter, Dennis Frost, scored to put Bridgetown up 3-2 after five shooters a side, finally putting the game in the bag for the favoured home team.

The Bridgetown win was the cherry atop an undefeated this season, including two wins against a Division I team from Horton High (2-1 and 2-0). They beat Bridgewater 6-1 in regional qualifiers, securing a bye to the provincial championships as the host team. A 6-2 defeat of Bridgewater in the semi-finals advanced Bridgetown to the finals against SAERC.

Bridgetown fell to an early 1-0 deficit when SAERC converted an early charge. With the wind at their backs, Bridgetown pressed the advantage and scored the equalizer about half way through the first half. The score remained unchanged until the shootout, despite hard challenges by both sides, until Frost finally put the game out of reach with the last shot of the first round of the game-ending shoot-out.

Surprisingly, coach Terry Saunders believes this is not the first time that Bridgetown has accomplished a threepeat in senior boys soccer. As a student he played on back-to-back championship teams in 1981-82, and believes that the 1983 team completed the cycle.

“I can’t speak for other schools, but I have to assume this is a pretty rare record at any level,” he said. “These boys should be recognized for their outstanding achievement.”

Four members of the Bridgetown side played on all three champion teams, an impressive record worthy of special note: Greg McOrmond (keeper), Geoff Burke (fullback), Dennis Frost (fullback), and Jordan Saunders (midfield).