Circumstances beyond its control conspired to defeat Powell River Villa in its latest bid to win the George Pearkes Cup.
Work and other commitments put a big dent in the lineup for its semifinal game against Campbell River Cermaq City FC 3A and proved costly in the 3-1 loss.
Seasoned starters were not available but coach Chris McDonough still managed to round up 14 players for the trip.
“We took a lot of young guys who have been training with us all year,” he said, “who may not have played a lot but some of them got to start. Craig Simmons, Marm Fortier, Julien Welp were a few who played for us and we brought Corey McCracken to play in goal and Matt Liknes was our starting striker.”
Blue skies overhead but a bumpy, mucky pitch underfoot wasn’t ideal for the younger Villa side and that helped to even the age difference between the two teams.
Villa did get off to a good start, though, and quieted a couple of hundred home soccer fans by scoring the game’s first goal 20 minutes in.
Liknes’s presence was an early problem for Cermaq City as he drew a number of fouls and free kicks.
One of them turned into a corner where Billy Bagiopoulos drifted a ball in to Liknes and he drove it into the net with a header.
The lead lasted 15 minutes but gradual pressure by Cermaq City allowed a forward to slip by the Villa defenders and put a low shot by McCracken.
Tied 1-1 the hosts kept coming and eventually took the lead when Trevor Harry’s hand was inadvertently hit with the ball.
The ensuing penalty kick beat McCracken on the left side and Villa fell behind 2-1 at the break.
Despite a good effort Villa couldn’t generate anything early in the second half and Campbell River still applied the pressure.
With 15 minutes to go in the game, Cermaq City scored its third goal on a corner to seal the victory.
Villa’s Brody Harry did get in deep with five minutes to go but Villa’s best chance of the half went just wide of the post.
“I thought at the start we had a chance to beat these guys, especially up 1-0,” said McDonough, “but their experience and their physicality (they were a big team) showed. I’m not entirely disappointed given the team we had and I thought we made a good go of it.”
It might be the end of the cup run, but now Villa turns back to the end of its regular schedule.
“Next week we have a chance to take a good step to winning this league,” McDonough said, “and then qualify for the Provincial Cup which has been one of our main goals this year. We should get a lot of our bodies back and we should be able to do that.”
Villa has two home games remaining on the schedule with the next one at 1:30 pm on Sunday, March 8, against Lakehill Danger Police 3B at Cranberry Field.
