It was sink or swim on Saturday for Powell River Villa who met with Prospect Lake at Brooks Turf field in quarter-final Jackson Cup play.
Division two Villa, however, surprised the Lakers with a gritty 3-1 performance in a monsoon to eliminate the higher seed from further action.
Riding a 10-game undefeated streak Villa had to play its best and broke out of the gate like a racehorse.
Crisp passing, ball control and aggressive offence gave Villa a number of early chances to open scoring.
Eventually it stormed the Lakers’ offensive zone and when the ball criss-crossed through the box a number of times, David Bertrand smashed Villa’s first goal into the net.
“Kye [Taylor] crossed to Song [Choi],” he said. “He hit it—save—then Jamie [Zroback] shot and it deflected to me. I just hit it off the foot. It felt great to get one, especially in Jackson.”
Villa maintained the energy after the goal and almost got the insurance goal when, with one man back, Jordan Peters chipped it ahead to Bertrand who got a little ahead of himself and lost the ball to the keeper.
Still, Villa had no difficulty defending the 1-0 lead up to the half and had to be satisfied with its effort thus far.
During the break, Prospect talked about taking away Villa’s time and space and looked to be more determined to start the second 45 minutes.
Villa, for its part, subbed in Dylan McLean for Zroback up front and the move paid off when keeper Matt Liknes launched his patented drop kick way down the pitch.
The ball sailed through the Prospect defenders and McLean did too where he sprung himself free and launched a shot to beat the keeper on the far side at 57 minutes.
Up 2-0 Villa kept coming and just as a gust of wind blew an umbrella onto the pitch to distract Nick van’t Schip, Taylor blew one by the keeper from the right side of the pitch.
His goal, with less than 10 minutes remaining, virtually assured the win for Villa but Prospect Lake wasn’t quitting and spoiled the shutout with a low screen shot that found the left corner from 20 yards.
The goal at the 88th minute was the last and Villa gave a boisterous cheer for the Lakers, itself and finally the fans who braved the conditions to cheer the team on.
“We decided to play more offensive today,” said Bertrand “and I think it worked out well for us. We pushed the pace a little more than we have in recent weeks and later dropped back a little bit, which kind of hurt us. After that we got rolling and now keep on going to the semis.”
From a coach’s standpoint Zroback couldn’t have been more pleased. “We knew they were a div one team but we’ve beaten them before and we knew we could do it again. When we got this draw we looked at this game as a game that we could win and we came out, played with confidence and won the game.”
Looking ahead in the draw Zroback said, “We’re complete underdogs. We’ve been to the semifinals three times in the last four years and this year we’re actually looking to win it.”
With home field advantage, Zroback said, “We really need a big crowd out to cheer us on.”
Its semifinal opponent is Bays United, number three seed of division one, which has a record of 12-6-0, 45 goals for and 16 against. The game is scheduled for 5:15 pm on Saturday, March 17 at Brooks.
