In the battle between Vancouver Island Soccer League’s (VISL) two river cities Campbell River Cermaq City Wave 2 won 3-1 over Powell River Villa.
Powell River took a full 15-member squad over for the day trip on Saturday and got off to a pretty good start against the division’s top seed.
With Kye Taylor up front along with fleet-footed forward Humberto Rosales, the two combined early for a couple of good scoring chances.
On the first one Taylor fed Rosales who sped down the left wing and beat the last defender in the box but was taken down in the process.
Kurtis Dennison stepped up to take the penalty kick, which he promptly fired into the lower left corner of the net, putting Villa up 1-0 at 20 minutes.
For his part, Rosales continued to be a threat and just five minutes later took another pass from Taylor just missing the net on a break away chance.
Villa’s hustle and Rosales’ spunk got the attention of the Wave and they pushed back with more and more possession and eventually the tying goal. It came as a result of the pressure and was an own-goal when Dennison was attempting to clear a ball at 33 minutes.
Campbell River kept pouring it on until they had the go ahead goal 10 minutes later on a scramble, taking a 2-1 lead into the break.
“They are a really good team,” admitted coach Chris McDonough, “and it was a fair result in the first half.”
The Wave lived up to its name coming out in the second half and continuing to roll over Villa.
“It was pretty much more of the same,” said McDonough. “They controlled most of the play and had most of the possession, but we defended well.”
At 70 minutes the Wave scored the insurance goal on a perfect shot from 25 yards out that skipped over the glove of keeper Matt Liknes into the low corner.
Villa had a couple of chances after that but for the most part Campbell River defended well and cruised to a 3-1 victory.
“That’s the best squad I’ve seen this year,” said McDonough.
“We probably don’t have as good a squad as we had earlier this year,” he said referring to the departures of seven regulars, “but we’ve got to refocus next week because of a big relegation battle.”
He was referring to this week’s game against SFFC Bayside Tigers 2 who are ninth in the 10-team division, five points behind eighth-place Villa.
The game against the Tigers is at Timberlane Park on Sunday, November 8 at 1:30 pm.
