The U15 Thunderbirds beat West Van Spuraways 4-1 in a semi-final at Ambleside last Saturday, following a 7-2 thrashing of the same West Vancouver side two weekend’s ago in Sechelt.
Casey Baines and Cole Schutz, playing his first match back after spraining an ankle in the season opener, each scored a hat trick of highlight reel goals with Kai Hansen scoring a penalty after getting taken down in the box.
Back on their home turf with a full squad, the Spuraways’ well-laid plans for revenge were quickly dented when Angelo Pinsonnault neatly squared a free kick to Casey who curled it top corner, smashing in off both bars only 90 seconds from the start. With twin towers Quin Huibers and Jake Benner expertly holding down the central defence, Will Magnussen was afforded a rare shift up front and made the most of it when he barged in the second goal about 15 minutes in.
Kai then coolly slotted home the penalty kick after Cole’s rush on goal was halted with a rugby tackle.
Up 3-0 at the half, the Thunderbirds took their foot off the gas until a West Van goal provided a wake-up call.
It was all Thunderbirds the rest of the way with Will and Kai combining for another and a solid performance by the Spuraways keeper turning back many chances, including several by an unlucky Jamie Mundy.
The win advances the Thunderbirds to their first League Cup final, though they have to wait longer still for their chance at silverware with the big game set for Feb. 28.
U11 boys
Sunshine Coast United FC took on the Italian Canadian Soccer Federation’s Roma at Vancouver’s Trillium Turf fields last weekend.
This aggressive game opened quickly and full of great scoring chances for United. Owen Watson took a huge corner kick, which the Roma’s goalie deflected. Capitalizing on the rebound, Alex Hart shot one hard from centre to open the scoring.
Roma answered back a short time later to even the score.
With just minutes remaining in the first half, Taiyo Blackwell made a clean pass to Brett Bjornson to end the half with a 2-1 lead.
The second half started with both teams coming out strong with plenty of scoring chances on both sides, but it was Roma tying up the score.
United had a beautiful breakaway, only to have it called offside.
Taking advantage of United’s misfortune, Roma capitalized on their shot on net to take the lead 3-2 and the eventual win.
United’s next game is this Saturday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. at Piccadilly field.
U12 girls
Storm have been on a winning streak in league play including triumphing in a nail-biting Cup game on Nov. 9, which ended 0-0 at the end of regular play.
In the shootout that followed, Storm came away with the win with almost all of the shooters hitting the net and a rock solid performance from Mary Wood defending Storm’s net.
Their streak came to an end last Sunday when they hosted North Vancouver Tsunami.
Although the Storm played hard, many of them in new positions, they were unable to recover from the only goal of the game, which was scored by Tsunami within the first five minutes of the first half.
