Written By Brian Lockhart

The Centre Dufferin District High School Royals boys varsity soccer team made it all the way to the District 4 championship match and put out a solid performance in the final game against Westside Secondary School from Orangeville.

The District 4 schedule was different this year due to the ongoing pandemic and the hesitance to send teams back and forth to different towns and schools.

Instead of a regular season schedule, the seven regional high school teams played out a two-day qualifying tournament.

The tournament was held on Wednesday, October 13, and Monday, October 18, in Shelburne with games taking place on the CDDHS main field, as well as at Greenwood Park.

Due to the odd number of teams, the Royals drew the short straw in the schedule and had to play four games back-to-back on the Monday schedule.

Despite an exhausting line-up of games, the Royals squad battled through it and won three of the four games to find themselves in second place in the standings at the end of the tournament.

The Royals scored 13 goals in tournament play while allowing seven goals against over the six qualifying games.

Westside managed to go undefeated for the tournament and finished in first place in the standings.

CDDHS qualified with 12 points – two ahead of the third place Erin District High School to earn the right to go to the final game.

The final game got underway at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 21, on the main field at Centre Dufferin District High School.

The Westside team got a couple of early goals and managed to keep their momentum going for the rest of the game.

The Royals responded with a good effort on the field for an exciting and well played final match.

They just couldn't put on into the Westside net and had to settle for a 5 – 0 loss in the final game.

The Royals varsity team had a lot of younger players this year.

With the good results and excellent effort on the field, the teams should be positioned even better going forward, over the next couple of years.