There is an air of excitement leaking out of the Powell River Villa camp as the team starts the season on a two-game winning streak.
Villa travelled to Victoria for a game Saturday evening, September 20, against Prospect Lake Lakers and came away with a convincing 3-0 shutout and a spot at the top of the standings.
A full complement of 15 players made the trip and pretty much all of them were first-stringers.
Things got off to a bit of a slow start for Powell River but once the legs kicked in they stretched the pitch and started to click on some rushes.
An early opportunity came for Billy Bagiopoulos who chipped the ball from about 40 yards out, just missing the mark and hitting the side of the net.
Opportunity knocked a little closer to the net next time when a nice passing play between Kye Taylor, Bagiopoulos and Jake Kenmuir ended with Brody Harry finishing it off from six yards.
With a 1-0 lead Villa kept the pressure on when Kenmuir started a give and go with Harry, which led to Kenmuir drilling a shot into the lower corner from 15 yards out.
With 2-0 after 25 minutes Villa didn’t sit back but instead kept coming at the Lakers from all angles.
At 30 minutes Daniel Paul caught the Laker keeper wandering when he chipped in a long ball from 35 yards out.
Villa took a comfortable 3-0 lead into the half and talked about what they had to do to maintain the upper hand.
They played with a lot of composure and later had the luxury of putting in all of the players who had made the trip.
It was a solid effort all around for the team and admittedly keeper Matt Liknes had a pretty easy time securing his first shutout of the year.
“We defended well but they had a couple of chances late,” said coach Chris McDonough. “But Kye Taylor was very good in the middle of the park as was Boseung Kwan. We broke them down pretty early and from there played a smart defensive game because we were up 3-0.”
The back-to-back wins to start the season are very welcome after a couple of tough years but McDonough and Villa aren’t resting on their laurels.
“I’m pretty impressed with our young guns up front,” he said. “Brody, Billy and Jake are a pretty formidable strike force up there. There are a few more pieces too that we will add going forward—Rob Devlin and a new Japanese player who is coming in from Camber College. He trained with us last week and he’s definitely a quality player.”
Good news all around and fans get a chance to hopefully see Villa make it three in a row when it hosts Juan de Fuca FC at 1:30 pm on Sunday, September 28 at Cranberry Field.
