SG Soccer: Bagging the Banner

Winning the banner is a season-long accomplishment. It rewards consistency. Showing up to play every day, rain or shine. Every goal matters. Every save. Every 50-50 ball. That’s why I love it so much. Anyone can get hot for a couple of playoff games, but you’ve gotta lock in every time to be crowned the champions of the regular season.

 

It’s been quite the journey. We opened the 2025 campaign with a gritty 2-1 comeback win at Massey-Vanier, where we pulled it out without really knowing what we were doing out there. Our next outing, 2-0 vs Galt at Our House, we played a near-perfect game. Galt took the rematch a week later 2-1, handing us our first loss and compressing the standings. Lessons learned from that game helped us dismantle an undermanned BCS squad 8-2 in our next game, which put us in the driver’s seat for the league because Galt had previously tied that same BCS team. That is my point – to earn the banner you can’t let up for a second, and Galt letting that BCS game slip away opened the door for us.

 

A door that your Spartans knocked down with two season-clinching 4-1 wins, a scratchy one vs MVR followed by Saturday’s confident, comprehensive victory that showed how far we’ve come this year. On defence, we gave up a few corner kicks but little else, marked by improved communication between Zoey and her defenders, and led by Julia’s inspired play at left back. In the midfield we won the battle of the trenches, sparked by Etsuho’s aggressiveness and speed of play. And once we got the ball out to the wing and up to the strikers, the best offence in the league (21 goals scored; next best is 8!) took over and put on a show, pressing the attack every chance they got, finishing with two bee-yoo-tiful goals each by Raf and Eve and at least a dozen more quality near-misses (including Sara C’s and Jane’s best chances of the year).

 

I think back to September 5, the first official day of school, that first afternoon. Opening tryouts. With only eleven(!) girls. And then I fast forward to today, October 25, celebrating a league title(!) by taking an unscheduled side trip to Tim Horton’s. Wow. It’s been a heckuva ride. Individuals became friends. Friends became teammates. Teammates became champions. It doesn’t get much better than that.

 

There is a time-honoured tradition in senior girls soccer, i.e. if we win the banner, I bring Sharpies to our last practice and every player signs it with their name and uniform number, so that when you return to visit Stanstead years from now, you will be able to find that banner on the Amaron wall, point out your name, and see your teammates’ names as well. We’ve still got a bit more soccer to play, but no matter what happens, we have a scheduled banner-signing next Friday at our last practice of the 2025-26 season. I’ll be the one bringing the Sharpies… and who knows, maybe even a couple donuts. Congratulations, champs!

 

One last goal to reach: the playoff trophy. Starting with the semi-final Monday vs MVR. It’s been 5 years since SC has won both the league AND the playoffs. Is this the year we do it? Is this the team?