by Glen Gibbs Peak Sports There is no quit on the Powell River Villa squad this year and for that it was rewarded with a hard fought 1-1 draw against the top team in division B of the Vancouver Island Soccer League.
It was a solid lineup but not the A-team that made the trip on Saturday for the noon start on Sunday.
Key players such as Scott Hobson, Rob Devlin and Kyle Vasseur were not available but 13, including manager Todd Phillips and two keepers, were in Victoria for the game.
Matt Liknes took up his position between the pipes with Doug Rivera at midfield and a stacked defence for the expected pressure from the Castaways.
Kye Taylor was sweeper and he was supported by Dean Thorsell, Nick van’t Schip and David Bertrand, who has returned to play for Villa after his Vancouver Island University Mariners won a bronze medal at the national college championships in Quebec City.
The first half was fairly even between the two sides with neither keeper having to deal with a great scoring chance.
During the half-time break and tied 0-0, Villa felt very positive and playing coach Jamie Zroback said, “we were thinking we could stuff one in and possibly get one lucky goal and here we go.”
The number one seed was starting to show some frustration in the second half and from that the game became chippy.
During one scuffle Brandon Knox and a Castaway received a yellow card and later, with 15 minutes to go, Knox received a second yellow. His ejection from the game meant Villa was down a man for the remainder of the match.
It didn’t take the Castaways long to capitalize on the situation when division scoring leader Kenny Howell got his eighth of the season with a nice shot to beat Liknes.
Despite being short-handed, Villa rose to the challenge and with four minutes to play Taylor stepped up to take a free kick from the right side of the park.
He hit it with his left foot which curled it in toward the keeper and after the ball bounced in Jordan Peters got a shot away that careened off the post.
Fortunately, the ball came right back to Zroback who was waiting outside for the rebound and he promptly hit it with his left foot right into the back of the net.
“All I was thinking was ‘oh my God, that’s my left foot,’” he said, “‘and that’s the leg I had my surgery on and it’s not too mobile. Hopefully I’m not the donkey here,’” he chuckled at the thought that raced through his head.
But he nailed the tying goal and Villa’s resilience under the conditions was justly rewarded.
“We would have felt very jaded if the final was a 1-0 loss,” said Zroback, “because it was an even match, and an unfortunate event that Brandon got thrown out, and it would have been a sad trip home.”
The tie extends Villa’s unbeaten streak to three games and next week it hopes to add to it with its last game before Christmas break.
It will host Bays United FC2, a team just ahead of Villa in the standings, at 5:15 pm on Saturday, December 10 at Brooks Turf field.
