For the first time in four years, the Regiopolis-Notre Dame Panthers have won the Kingston Area Secondary School Athletic Association (KASSAA) field hockey championship.
The Garnet and Gold scored a couple of late goals in the second half to edge the Holy Cross Crusaders 2-1 on Thursday afternoon at Queen’s Tindall Field.
Makayla Cabral and Rachel Oleschuck scored for Regiopolis. Maizy Dickson tallied for the Crusaders.
With the victory, the Panthers also laid claim to the Eastern Ontario title for Triple-A schools.
“We’ve always been a second-half team,” said Oleschuck.
The Panthers co-captain says Holy Cross gave them all they could handle.
“The Crusaders really took it to us for a majority of the game,” she said.
“We came to play in the second half and turned the game around. After falling behind 1-0 we had to regroup and collect ourselves. We did just that and came on strong with a couple of big goals.”
The Panthers finished the season with an undefeated 10-0-1 record and co-captain Catarina Russo-Smith knew that Thursday’s KASSAA final would be the toughest one to win.
“We beat Holy Cross 1-0 in regular-season play and when we fell behind 1-0 today I thought we might be in trouble, but the girls rallied in the second half to pull out the victory,” said Russo-Smith.
The Regiopolis-Holy Cross rivalry is one of the best in the city. Every time they meet, no matter the sport, it’s always a spirited affair.
“It’s a fierce but friendly rivalry,” said Panthers forward Abbigail Berube. “We all know and care for each other but it’s a different story when we’re on the field.
“They gave their all today and so did we, but we were just a little bit luckier.”
As KASSAA and Eastern Ontario Secondary School Athletic Association champions, the Panthers now represent the region at the Ontario high school championships Oct. 30-Nov. 1 in Mississauga.