Eight and counting for the Flyers

Reagan Flynn stood tall Wednesday afternoon at Governor Simcoe to backstop the Eden Flyers girls field hockey squad to its eighth straight Niagara Region High School Athletic Association title.

The Eden goalie was under siege for a good portion of the game but she recorded a shutout to help the Flyers record a 1-0 victory to advance to the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association championship game next week against Saltfleet.

“We didn’t think it was going to be this year. Last year we had 15 Grade 12s graduate and we were kind of expecting to play the underdogs this year,” Eden head coach Charlotte Morrison said. “I have to give a lot of credit to our captains who did not let anyone get defeated. They took our losses as opportunities to improve as opposed to getting hard on themselves.”

Eden’s success starts and ends with Flynn.

“She is the best goalie in our league. I would argue she is the best goalie in Southern Ontario and when we went to OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) a couple of years ago all the people raved about her.”

Morrison feels Flynn’s background playing goal in ice hockey is a big help for the Grade 12 student.

A key player on defence for the Flyers is Samantha Bowen, who batted a late, game-tying shot attempt out of the air.

“My comment was ‘That’s what happens when you have a goalie playing defence’ because she also plays ice hockey.”

It was clearly Flynn who stole the show Wednesday.

“Obviously we did well against this team last year and there’s a lot of new girls on our team but we knew we had the capability and we knew we could achieve a win against this team if we all did our part,” the 17-year-old said. “We did what we could, we played as a team and that got us the win today.”

The Grade 12 student did her best to remain cool under pressure Wednesday.

“I just stuck to my basics, I did what I needed to do and I think that really showed today. I stayed calm even when there was a lot of pressure.”

She also plays goal for the Brock Junior Badgers under-18 AA squad and is hoping to play goalie in either sport at the post secondary level.

Understandably, West Niagara head coach Meredith Short felt her team deserved a better fate.

“I would say we were down there (Eden’s end) 75 per cent of the time so that was frustrating. It is a very hard loss,” she said.

The Wolfpack were undefeated heading into the game — 6-0 in the regular season and an 8-0 victory over Laura Secord in the semifinals — and had outscored their opposition 32-1 heading into the final but couldn’t find the back of the net when it mattered most.

In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, it was deja vu all over again for the Wolfpack.

“We perennially end up in this position and we end up losing by one goal. I think we have a bit of a mental block when it comes to Eden but our program is getting better and better,” Short said. “We have 16 returning 11s and 12s next year and only three players are graduating. We are looking forward to next year already with how great our team is going to be. It is going to be unstoppable.”

West Niagara just needs to get over the hump against Eden, although, the Wolfpack defeated the Flyers 5-1 and 2-0 in the regular season.

“It was just today that there was a hump. This was an anomaly for us to end up with this result and to miss a stroke (like a penalty kick in soccer) was just unlucky,” she said.

The Wolfpack had a chance to tie the game in the final three minutes of the game with the stroke but their shooter fired the ball wide.

“She never misses and it was just a heartbreaker for them and the Grade 12s too.”

The tough defeat should give the Wolfpack extra motivation for 2025.

“I have honestly never coached such a great group of girls. They are the most committed and on top of everything they are cheerleaders for each other,” Short said. “It’s unbelievable to me what a close-knit group of kids they are and I get all of them for another year, except for three.”

Scoring for the Wolfpack in the semifinal win over Laura Secord were Maddie Jones (2), Jayen Lapecevich (2), Riley Kirk, Megan Clark, Ketruah Mayner, and Scarlet Moodie.

Morrison didn’t characterize Eden’s win over West Niagara as lucky.

“I don’t know about luck but we worked hard. They are a very skilled team and we lost to them two times early in the season but the girls were not defeated by that and they knew if they worked hard and pushed themselves that it was going to be a close game,” she said. “I wouldn’t say lucky at all. I would say we had two very good teams that were battling it out and one team had to come out on top.”

She feels her team knows how to win.

“You saw after they got that goal that they didn’t celebrate. They ran back to half to be ready to continue to play. That was probably one of the best things that I saw out there. Obviously the goal was key but the way they reacted to the goal and the pressure during the first half of the game was important because we had already lost to them twice. They didn’t let that get in their heads and they are such a strong group of athletes.”

Flynn agrees with her coach that the Flyers know how to win.

“It is eight straight zones that we have won and I think even though we had a rough start to the season, we knew how to put it together and play as a team when it mattered.”

Morrison described West Niagara as incredibly skilled.

“They may even be more skilled than we are at field hockey but these girls proved that underdogs can win the game any way.”

Addy Wiens scored the game-winning goal in the final for Eden while Dani Sawyer scored twice and Nicole Falk added a single in a 3-1 semifinal win against Governor Simcoe.