Powell River Villa needed a big game to maintain its position in Division Two and it got it with a 5-1 thrashing of Gordon Head Blazers on Sunday.
Goal ratio could have an impact on Villa’s standing this year and while keeping balls out of the net hasn’t been a problem, putting them in has.
Villa’s first 17 games had yielded just 13 goals and, with the standings as tight as they are, relegation could come down to the dreaded goals ratio.
Right off the top, Coach Jamie Zroback wanted to apologize to any fans who may have been inconvenienced by the late change in venue.
Cranberry and Brooks Secondary School athletic fields were unavailable to Villa so the team fully intended to play at Sunset Park but due to the snow a last-minute change to Gordon Park had to be made.
“This was the only field open in town,” Zroback explained, “and this game had to get played because they [Gordon Head] had already committed to come.”
The match started at 1:30 pm and although Villa pressed early with a couple of great scoring chances, it was Gordon Head who opened with a goal 14 minutes in.
At 22 minutes Villa bounced back to even the score when Jamie Zroback was on the receiving end of a great give-and-go with Nick Van’t Schip and he made good on his shot from 15 yards out.
Villa carried the play until the half but couldn’t add to the score until
the 50-minute mark.
It received a break when Kye Taylor was taken down in the box and he delivered Villa’s second goal with a firm strike into the lower right corner of the net.
That goal opened the floodgates for Villa and the team pumped in three more goals in less than 10 minutes.
First of the three was a blast off the foot of Van’t Schip from 25 yards. This was followed by a corner from Dylan McLean who dropped the ball into a pile of players that included Taylor who poked it in. Taylor’s hat trick arrived on a nice run finished with a perfectly placed shot inside the far post.
“We found different ways to score today,” said Zroback after the game. “Some of the goals were beautiful and that’s what we needed.”
Taylor’s three-goal performance helped to clinch the victory but even he admitted to some early jitters facing a one-goal deficit. “We squandered a few early chances and then they got one on a turnover and a counter attack. Fortunately Jamie, who hasn’t played in almost two years, slotted that first one and it settled the nerves.”
Coming out into the second half, Taylor added, the team had its confidence boosted. “We managed to burst the old onion bag finally.”
This game at this point in the season could be the key to Villa’s standing at the end of the year.
“We’ll take a big win like that for our confidence going into these last few important games,” said Taylor.
The next big game for Villa has it hosting Prospect Lake Lakers 1:30 pm on Sunday, February 27 at Cranberry Field.
