It doesn’t necessarily want to make it a habit but Powell River Villa came from behind for the second week in a row to win 4-2 over Penelakut United 3A.
The team travelled down to Victoria Saturday morning with 14 players for the game that started at one o’clock, and perhaps suffered early from the dreaded bus legs.
A rough pitch and an opponent loaded with veterans combined to put Villa down 1-0 after just 15 minutes of play.
“They are a bit of an older team,” explained coach Chris McDonough, “and with their experience that all played into their favour.”
Villa had a bit of a breakdown through the middle at 15 minutes that allowed a forward through to beat goalkeeper Matt Liknes.
“We were hoping to take it to them a bit,” said McDonough, “but they were not really having any of that and they were a bigger team and came out pretty hard.”
Penelakut was also playing a pretty physical game, “so we made some adjustments and brought in big Jay Ti Newmark,” he said.
The move to Newmark paid off quickly when he scored a gritty goal in tight five minutes later to tie the game 1-1.
It remained tied into the halftime break where McDonough asked his players to move the ball quicker and speed up the play.
Unfortunately, Penelakut scored 10 minutes into the second half to go up 2-1 on a perfect free kick to the top corner from 20 yards out.
Villa, however, responded right away when Jake Kenmuir ripped a 30-yard blast of his own into the far top corner.
The players shifted into a higher gear after that one and Nick van’t Schip gave Villa its first lead with 15 minutes left on a perfect shot to the corner.
He iced the game with another great blast with five minutes to play and Villa had its second win of the year 4-2.
“They definitely tired out and that was their first game of the season,” said McDonough of Penelakut. “They were good on the ball but they weren’t the fittest guys and I think we wore them down.”
Overall he was very pleased with the road win especially given the conditions. “We were in tough there for the first half,” he admitted, “but we finished our chances when we got them. It was also good team building for some of the guys, seeing that they could come back from one goal down.”
The win put Villa in a tie for top spot with Hellas FC 3A, the highest scoring team in the division, who also happen to be the opponent in this weekend’s game.
The game is scheduled for 1:30 pm Sunday, September 29 at Timberlane Park and represents an important six-point game in terms of promotion.
Just one team from Division 3A will move up at the end of the year and it looks like these two teams will be contenders for that promotion.
“This is massive,” said McDonough, “and we need three points this weekend, so it should be a good game.”
