The Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils have spent the last few weeks quietly working their way through the list of steps necessary to win their second straight AAA high school soccer provincial title.
Finish the regular season with a perfect record: Check.
Outscore all opponents 41-5: Check.
Win the Fraser Valley championship for the second year in a row: Check.
But there is one final item on the to-do list the club will begin working toward next week, when they take the field in Burnaby for the final tournament of the year.
“We are just getting set for it,” said head coach Dave Jones on Monday, two days after the club won the regional title. “It’s just one of those things where we really want to repeat as provincial champions.”
But the Blue Devils are up against some tough competition if they hope to win another B.C. banner. First there’s North Vancouver’s Argyle secondary, a school that is still smarting from last year’s loss to Best in the championship finals. There is also Surrey’s Sullivan Heights secondary, a team that struggled to break into the top three at the Fraser Valleys but has been consistently strong throughout the regular season.
“They have had a tough go,” said Jones. “But I think they could be a bit of a dark horse.”
But Best is strong up and down the roster.
During last year’s championship run, Jones said he was careful to give his Grade 11 players 50% of the playing time.
That decision is paying off this season as he fields one of the more experienced rosters in the league. Most of the players preparing for the provincials have been there before, Jones said, and know what they have to do to win.
“They have had the experience going into this,” he said. “Aside from maybe two players, they are all Grade 12s in the starting lineup.”
Best’s experience was on display throughout the regional playdowns.
The club kicked off the post-season with a 5-0 shutout win over Abbotsford secondary, before defeating Fraser Heights secondary 2-0 a few weeks later.
The squad’s strong defence was once again on display in the semifinals, where they bested L.A. Matheson secondary of Surrey and they managed to keep the shutout streak going into the championship game when they took down Tamanawis secondary 2-0.
The AAA high school provincials start Thursday, Nov. 24, at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex.
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