Road wins usually separate the good teams from the bad in the Vancouver Island Soccer League (VISL) and last weekend Powell River Villa proved its place with three points.
In a 90-minute battle against second-seeded Fernwood Town FC, Powell River led throughout in a tight 2-1 victory, Saturday, October 4.
Fernwood, promoted from division four last year, has put together a team with some former division one players and a number of other players with VISL experience.
Fernwood went pretty deep in its cup run last year as well and is considered to be an up and comer expected to enjoy success with more promotions.
In this game however, it met its match in the skill and hard work departments when Villa took the large turf pitch at Finlayson.
Play was back and forth in the early going on Saturday evening with both teams exceedingly aggressive resulting in a couple of cards, a few cuts and an assortment of scrapes and bruises.
Villa’s Kye Taylor suffered a deep gash to his head and defender Dean Thorsell was helped off with a possible broken toe.
Nonetheless, the game roared on with Villa finally getting the first goal at the 20-minute mark.
A new acquisition for Villa, Miguel Gonzales from Spain, got the play started with a nice feed to Brody Harry who beat his man and put the ball ahead to Jake Kenmuir.
Kenmuir used his speed to break free and put a clean shot into the far corner for a 1-0 lead.
Fernwood responded quickly, however, when it got to a loose ball in the Villa box and evened the score 1-1.
Physical play continued for another 10 minutes when Villa capitalized on a foul called on Fernwood deep inside its zone.
Kenmuir was pulled down just outside the box and on his free kick drove the ball at the opposition’s wall.
One of the Fernwood players threw up his hand to block it and because he lined up in the box a penalty kick was awarded to Villa.
Kenmuir stepped up to take the shot and drove it to the left while the keeper moved to the right and Villa went ahead 2-1.
Villa is getting used to holding the lead at the half and coach Chris McDonough reminded his team to, “move the ball quickly and keep things simple.”
Villa’s Taylor and Curtis McMillan each rang a shot off the post in the second half but the defence and substitute keeper, David Bertrand, were enough to get the win.
Bertrand was called to duty when Matt Liknes suffered a lower body injury in training last week and he turned in a solid performance.
Even with the adjustments after the injury to Thorsell, Villa has the depth this year to fill in the holes.
“Kye dropped back into defence and Yuto Okiyama moved into his spot,” McDonough explained after the game. “That really solidified the back end for us and our new players Miguel and Jorge [Reyes] and Trevor Harry all played a really good game. We didn’t give up a lot of chances other than the one they scored on.”
McDonough liked the grit level of his team as well and noted that the officiating allowed for a clean but physical contest.
“It was one of our more exciting games of the year,” he said, “and we had the majority of the play in the second half.”
Villa’s early success is good enough to put them atop the division 3B standings but McDonough maintains there is a long way to go.
“It’s always tough on the road for us,” he said, “but this year we’ve got enough bodies to get the job done. So far we’ve consistently fielded a good team so that makes a big difference.”
A bit of a change for Villa fans this week as the team hosts the Cordova Bay Red Barn Bobcats at 1:30 pm on Saturday, October 11.
