Powell River Villa lost 4-2 against Comox Valley United in its game on Saturday, November 19, in Comox, dashing the soccer club’s hopes of closing in on the teams ahead of them in Vancouver Island Soccer League (VISL) Division 1 standings.
“It was pretty frustrating, as we were leading for quite a while, but Comox was basically playing for their season,” said Chris McDonough, Villa’s manager. “We made some mistakes in the last 20 minutes that as a veteran team they were able to capitalize on, and they were able to get the win.”
Comox opened the scoring at 17 minutes with a header off a corner kick that got past keeper Scott McKenzie. Villa countered just before halftime, when Niko Cristante buried a penalty kick into the net at 40 minutes.
Villa took the lead five minutes into the second half when Kalem Lindstrom scored at 50 minutes in his first game for Villa this season.
“Kalem got past his man on the left side and got off a nice shot that made it past the keeper,” said McDonough. “We were in command at that point and had a number of other chances to gain a more secure lead, but didn’t quite finish those chances.”
Comox scored again at 70 minutes to tie the game, to the delight of the Comox crowd. The team rallied with two more goals at 82 and 83 minutes to finish the game.
“We have to put in a solid effort where everyone is focused and on the same page for the whole game to be successful,” said McDonough. “That didn’t happen against Comox. We were good at times, but there were times when we checked out, and it came back to bite us.”
Villa returns home this weekend after three straight road games to host Division 1 leaders Lakehill FC at Timberlane Park. Lakehill hasn’t lost a single game all season. Kickoff is at 1:30 pm on Saturday, November 26, and tickets will be available at the gate.
“We had a positive game when they hosted us – we lost 4-1 but were leading for most of the game – and when we played them here last the score was only 1-0, so we’ve had positive performances against them,” said McDonough. “But we’re going to have to put this weekend behind us and get it all together. If we make any mistakes against Lakehill, they’ll definitely take advantage of them.”
Following this weekend’s match, Villa plays twice more before the holiday season break. The club will be on the road to face Vic West FC on Saturday, December 3, before returning to Timberlane to host Gorge FC on Saturday, December 10.
