Last weekend was a big one for Powell River Villa and it wasn’t about winning championships. It was about survival.
Relegation this year could have included Villa had it finished in the bottom four of division two standings.
Happily, it avoided such a circumstance by winning the game it had to win and getting some help from an unlikely source.
Villa had two games in hand over Victoria’s Vantreights heading into the weekend but Vantreights was virtually assured of a win over last place Gordon Head Blues so players believed they needed at least two wins in Villa’s last three games to catch them.
On Saturday two wonderful things happened.
First, Villa picked up a win over Comox Valley United 3-2 and then mere hours later Vantreights, incredibly, lost 1-0 to Gordon Head Blues, virtually ensuring a spot for Villa in division two next year.
Villa scored early in Comox when Dylan McLean cut in from the right and boomed a shot into the bottom right of the net.
It added to the lead on a nice cross from David Bertrand to McLean who flicked it to Nick van’t Schip at the far post and he then pumped it into the net.
If the quick two-goal lead was unexpected so was the comeback by Comox with a couple of its own before the end of the first half.
The message at the break from coach Jamie Zroback was, “get your act together” and the team responded by scoring the only goal of the second half.
Kye Taylor scored it 15 minutes in when he drilled the winner from 12 yards on a nice setup from Rick Rushton.
Cory McCracken was spectacular at times in the game but got a little lucky with four minutes to go when Comox rattled a shot off the post.
The play scared the living daylights out of the Villa but it hung on from there to secure the crucial 3-2 win.
Comox, who was facing the certainty of relegation, put up a much tougher fight than expected.
“They were gunning for us big time,” said Zroback
after the game.
With one great win under its belt, Villa received the good news later in the evening about the Vantreights result.
“I just can’t believe how they can beat Vic West, Castaways and Prospect Lake and lose to Gordon Head,” said Zroback. “The soccer gods are with us on that.”
The result meant Villa only had to avoid a lopsided loss to second-seeded Nanaimo United FC in its game on Sunday.
High-flying Villa did much better than that and perhaps sent a strong message to the division for next year by shutting out the division’s second seed 2-0.
Villa had the best chance in the first half when van’t Schip rattled a shot off the crossbar but it stayed out.
It made good on a couple of second half chances though, once when McLean crossed a ball to Rushton who headed it into the net and again when McLean was hauled down in the box and promptly pounded his shot through the middle after the keeper had guessed left.
The win was amazing but the brilliant play of younger players like McLean, van’t Schip, Jordan Peters, Joel Harry and others was all on display for Bill Merriman, coach of the national champion Vancouver Island University Mariners and one of the most influential soccer officials on Vancouver Island.
“He asked who our young players were,” said Zroback “and after I told him he offered them an open chance to come down for tryouts. From everything that happened for our organization this weekend, how cool is that?”
Extremely cool and good news heading into their last game against Castaways FC Saturday, March 26 in Victoria.
