The Eagles boys’ soccer team rallied back from two 2-0 deficits to take the NorWOSSA gold medal on Wednesday, May 25 in front of the home crowd.
The boys fell behind the Beaver Brae Broncos in the semi-finals but rallied back to score four goals in ten minutes, including a hat trick from Daniel Arndt, to take the game 4-3.
They squared off against the Fort Frances Muskies in the final, again falling to a 2-0 deficit before a huge mistake by the Muskies’ goaltender allowed rookie player Cody Kaus to open the scoring for the Eagles.
Moments later, Matt Bartlett tied the game and the two teams stayed in a deadlock through overtime into penalty shots.
Daimon Wesley scored the winning goal in PKs while first time goaltender Zach Lake made an outstanding save to push the Eagles to a gold medal.
Coach Conor Doherty says the boys didn’t get down on themselves and that first goal against the Muskies really boosted their confidence.
“Everybody all of a sudden started believing that we could really do it and no more than 10 minutes later, Bartlett put a corner kick in off his head. It was just the belief that we could come back and still win.
It was a very calm mood at the halftime huddle, nobody was hanging their heads, everybody was focused on what I was saying and I could see it on their faces that they weren’t worried.”
It took six shooters to beat the Muskies in penalty shots and earn their first NorWOSSA title since 2005.
It’s a first for every member of the team and they savoured the moment in front of family and friends.
“It feels great to finally win NorWOSSA again and it’s great for our older guys in their fourth and fifth years who haven’t won NorWOSSA in soccer before.
Like I said in the huddle at the end of the game, at the beginning of the year, I pointed up to board and showed them 2005 was the last time they’d won NorWOSSA so that was our goal from the beginning of the season to put a new number up on the board at the gym.”
Although the boys lost all their previous games to the Muskies, some stats to think about:
•In the match-up on May 5, the Eagles out-passed the Muskies 103-45
•In the match-up on May 9, the Eagles out-passed the Muskies 133-27
•On May 12, the Eagles out-passed the Muskies 114-40
•On May 19, they out-passed them 98-89.
The boys will start their OFSAA journey June 3 in Windsor, ON.
Check www.drydenobserver.ca for updates as the team makes their way through the tournament.

The Eagles boys’ soccer team is going to OFSAA after they ousted the first place Fort Frances Muskies in penalty shots in the NorWOSSA final.

The girls lost 1-0 in the semi finals against the Muskies.

The Muskies and the Beaver Brae Broncos are playing for first place.

Gold, silver and bronze medals were handed out to several members of the Dryden Dolphins during the annual Northwest Regional Swimming Championships hosted at the Canada Games Complex in Thunder Bay Feb. 26-28.
Sarah Urquhart, 8, placed third in the 50m and 100m butterfly; Alex Urquhart, 11, placed second in the 50m breaststroke; Jacob Anderson, 12, placed third in the 400m and 800m freestyle.
Kira Kuzemchuk, 12, finished second in the 50m freestyle and third in the 400m and 800m freestyle, the 100m and 200m breaststroke and the 400m individual medley.
Patrick Gould, 13, finished first in the 800m freestyle and 100m backstroke and finished third in the 50m freestyle and the 200m backstroke.
Chris Draper, 15, finished second in the 50m freestyle and third in the 200m breaststroke; Garrett Lindquist, 15, finished third in the 400m freestyle.
Three members of the Dryden Dolphins earned qualifying times to compete in the Manitoba Saskatchewan Short Court Provincials March 18-21 at the Pan Am Pool in Winnipeg.

By Sarah Madussi
The Eagles girls’ hockey team has done it again. The team earned their fifth NorWOSSA gold medal in the last six years and is off to the OFSAA Championships in Wingham, ON March 22-25.
The girls needed a third game to beat out the Thomas Aquinas Saints in the semi-final after taking game one at home with a 5-1 decision and losing to th Saints 3-1 on their home ice.
The Eagles managed a 5-2 decision in game three at the Dryden Memorial Arena on March 2 to earn their spot in the NorWOSSA finals.
The girls beat out the Beaver Brae Broncos in two straight games in the best-of-three series, earning a 3-2 win at home on Thursday, March 4 and a 2-1 win in Keewatin on Sunday, March 7.
In round one of the two-game final, Dryden took the Broncos in a thrilling 3-2 victory, which saw all but one goal scored on the powerplay.
Lauren Shoguchi opened the scoring for the Eagles in the first five minutes of the game to take an early lead. The Broncos retaliated, however, with a goal of their own on a 5-on-3 powerplay.
Claire Paquette would regain the Eagles lead with a late powerplay goal, bring the Eagles up 2-1 before the end of the first period.
The Broncos would score once more on the powerplay to tie the game at two before Alex Wesley netted the winning goal for the Eagles, also on a powerplay.
Coach Brad Bartlett says 5-on-5 hockey between these two teams is pretty equal and that both games could have gone either way.
“One goal in the entire series was scored with 5-on-5 so I think that’s a testament to both teams’ ability to play defence for sure and both goaltenders in the series I thought played fantastic, both Bree Brown and Ferguson for Kenora.”
Game two between these two teams saw similar action with all three goals in the game being scored on the powerplay.
Kristen Bartlett tapped in the first powerplay goal eight minutes into the first period and the Eagles carried that lead through to almost the end of the second period when Morgan Church slammed in the one-timer off a pass from Lauren Shoguchi, also on the powerplay.
The Broncos would get on the board two minutes later with a hard one-timer past goaltender Breanna Brown during a Broncos powerplay. The Eagles fended off the Broncos for the rest of the second period.
The third period proved to be a nail-biter as the Eagles and Broncos played end-to-end ice for a solid 20 minutes. Brown made some crucial saves late in the third to keep the girls in the lead after a few scrambles in front of the net had the Dryden crowd holding their breath.
The Eagles managed to hang on to the one-goal lead for the win and the NorWOSSA gold medal. The team’s next step is the all-Ontario championships at the end of the month and they’re looking for more than just round robin action.
“To guarantee us a spot in the championship bracket, we’re probably going to have to come out of the round robin 3-0, which we did last year. The expectation this year is to make it out of the round robin play at least. It’s a long ways to go to play three games and then get shipped back home really quick.”
The team has a couple of weeks to get some practice in before heading down to Wingham, ON for the OFSAA tournament.