Two seasons of undefeated lacrosse later and the Okotoks Bantam Girls Mustangs can finally lay claim to the title of best team in the province.
The Mustangs soundly defeated the rival Sherwood Park Titans 10-4 in the gold medal game of the Bantam Girls Provincials on July 1, putting an exclamation point on a perfect season for the club.
“It feels awesome, it feels great,” Mustang Kristina Piche said of winning the provincial gold medal. “Two years undefeated so it’s always a good feeling.”
Piche, a tireless defender at both ends of the floor, attributed Okotoks’ remarkable two-year run to the well-balanced roster of players on the Mustangs.
“I think it’s just our defence is really strong and we have quite a few good offensive players,” Piche said. “If we can make our defence the best then we have opportunities for the offence to go up and score some goals.”
The Mustangs’ pursuit of provincial glory was cut agonizingly short last year when they finished fourth at the Alberta championships.
“We got burned by the tie-breaker,” said Mustangs head coach Clint Bymak. “We won all of our games, but ended up going into the bronze game and the girls just mentally shutdown.”
The Mustangs made amends in 2012 to capture the first girls provincial championship in program history.
Bymak said an emphasis on matching and surpassing the physical intensity of Sherwood Park was crucial in the final.
“They’re a physical team and they have good shooters and our defence just kept them out,” Bymak said. “They had a power play goal or two, but that’s the key, keeping them out, especially with a young goalie.”
Once the Mustangs built a commanding lead, the attention turned to team defence and Bymak relied on the steady stream of quality defenders at his disposal including Piche and daughter Ally Bymak.
“Some of our girls are amazing at defence and that’s why they were out there most of the time,” he said.
The finalists took part in a round-robin game with no bearing on the standings less than 24 hours earlier. Both Sherwood Park and Okotoks had booked their ticket to the league final with 2-0 records, by beating the Edmonton Warriors and Rockyview Rage, and mutually came to the agreement to play a split-squad scrimmage in order to rest up for the final.
“It was more for them, because they play very physical and I didn’t think they wanted to play two games in a row,” Bymak said.
There was no shortage of intensity in the final, despite Okotoks’ clear edge in play.
The victory was a convincing one from start to finish, although the Titans gave the Mustangs a scare midway through the second period erasing a five goal deficit to get within three at 7-4.
“It was kind of scary there for a minute,” Piche said. “I thought we were going to fall apart, that everyone was going to get discouraged, but we picked it back up and stayed to the end.”
Okotoks would not give up another goal in the game.
The Mustangs kept their composure and rallied for two late middle stanza goals to make it 9-4 heading into the final frame, during which they added an insurance marker with 4:08 to go and cruised to the 10-4 victory.
And there’s no reason to believe they won’t be in the same spot next year defending their title.
Bymak said the team will bring back a lot of its players for a repeat run next season.
“A few will move up, but a lot of the newer ones like Ally (Bymak) and Julia (Porter) are first-year Bantams so we’ll have a strong club again next year,” he said.
The Bantam girls were but one of the strong performers during a terrific run for the Mustangs program in 2012.
Led by head coach Don Turner the Peewee Mustangs girls team also went undefeated en route to winning the Calgary District Lacrosse League title.
The feat was made all the more remarkable given the fact the Mustangs played most of the season with the minimum number of required players.
The Peewee team suffered its first defeat of the season at the provincial tournament on June 29 to the Sherwood Park Titans. The Mustangs rallied to qualify for the bronze medal game, on July 1, a game they would win 4-1 over the Calgary Hornets.
The Mustangs Bantam C team also won the league championship and advanced to provincials next weekend.
Elsewhere, the Midget A boys and Novice girls Mustangs each finished with bronze medals in the league playoffs.
The Bantam A Mustangs capped off their season in fine form in winning the prestigious Canada Day Box Lacrosse Tournament, July 2 at the Subway Soccer Centre in Calgary.
The Mustangs beat the Calgary Axemen 6-4 in the gold medal game, after notching round-robin victories over teams from Coquitlam, St. Albert, Sherwood Park and Winnipeg.
It was the Mustangs’ first gold at the Midget A level at the 36th incarnation of the tournament.
Bymak said the Mustangs can be especially proud of winning with just one affiliate player on the roster at a tournament characterized by the pooling of talented players to create proverbial all-star teams.
For more information on the Okotoks Mustangs go to www.okotokslacrosse.com.
