After two weeks off there was no sign of rust on the well-oiled machine that Powell River Villa has become.
A bye week followed by a cancellation could have been a problem for Villa’s weekend road game against FC Sagres but the young Powell River side still cruised to a 5-0 shutout.
Veterans Kye Taylor and Rob Devlin didn’t make the trip to Victoria but what Villa lacked in experience it more than made up for with speed and conditioning.
In their first meeting back in September, Villa edged FC Sagres 2-1. In the rematch on Saturday there was an anticipation of another tight 90-minute battle to come.
The physical contest was fairly even in the early going with both sides getting their chances but Matt Liknes made a couple of good saves while Villa snipers were denied at the other end of the pitch.
Denied, that is, until Nick van’t Schip broke the goose egg with a hard drive to the corner of the net at 30 minutes.
The goal seemed to lift his side to a new confidence where it was making crisp passes and taking over control of the pitch.
Trevor Harry and Miguel Gonzales were doing some great work as outside backs and, along with Boseung Kwan and Yuto Okiyama, contributed greatly to Villa’s control of the game.
“They were causing fits for the other team,” explained coach Chris McDonough. “They were winning every ball and every tackle and frustrating the Sagres quite a bit.”
Up 1-0 at the half, McDonough wanted his players to continue pushing the pace.
“We wanted to keep playing aggressive, attacking soccer,” he stressed, “because we have a lot of weapons and we want to take it to teams if we can.”
And that’s what Villa did with Billy Bagiopoulos running through to beat the keeper at 58 minutes.
Brody Harry, after immense pressure, got Villa’s third goal five minutes later. Bagiopoulos, with his second goal, made it 4-0 on a really nice solo effort where he beat the keeper and then merely tapped it in.
The final goal, with 10 minutes to play, came from Kwan who banged it off the near post and in.
Sagres, by this time, were extremely tired and understandably irritable and in the dying seconds there was some pushing and shoving that brought out a couple of red cards, one of them to Villa’s David Bertrand.
Other than that, it was just some good old competitive soccer and an overall effort that pleased the coach and made for a happy trip home.
“We’ve played some really attractive soccer out there and this was probably our best game of the year,” said McDonough. “In the second half [Sagres] didn’t really have a lot of the ball. We really stepped it up and took control of the game.”
Undefeated, Villa continues to work hard and build on its early season success.
“They’re kids but they are a mature group that is pulling for each other and having fun,” said McDonough. “It’s a group that can’t wait to get out to training and can’t wait to get to the next game.”
Fans should feed off that excitement and get to the next game which is against fourth seed Prospect Lake Lakers at 1:30 pm on Sunday, November 23 at Cranberry Field.
Team Standings
# Team GP W L T GF GA Diff Pts
1 Powell River Villa 3B 8 7 0 1 28 4 24 22
2 Cordova Bay Red Barn Bobcats 3B 9 4 3 2 11 14 -3 14
3 Fernwood Town FC 3B 7 4 2 1 16 8 8 13
4 PLSC Lakers 3B 8 4 4 0 14 14 0 12
5 FC Sagres 3B 8 3 3 2 22 13 9 11
6 Lakehill Danger Police 3B 8 3 3 2 14 21 -7 11
7 Juan de Fuca 3B 8 3 3 2 17 29 -12 11
8 Alberni Athletics 3B 9 3 5 1 29 18 11 10
9 Penelakut United 3B 9 0 8 1 5 35 -30 1
