Seven was heaven but eight is great and that’s what Powell River Villa extended its unbeaten streak to by winning 2-1 over Victoria’s Gorge United FC2.
The ferry situation is wreaking havoc with all teams travelling back and forth to Vancouver Island and a 45-minute delay in Gorge’s arrival pushed back the start to 6 pm.
Gorge showed up with just enough players to field a team but those 11 exploded out of the gate and had Villa on its heels early.
Despite the early pressure, any shots taken by Gorge were from the perimeter and keeper Matt Liknes held off the attack until his teammates could get their legs going.
Fifteen minutes in Villa slowly but surely reversed the flow and began to lean on Gorge.
After a flurry of extreme pressure Dylan McLean was hit hard about 20 yards out which resulted in a free kick.
Jamie Zroback lined up to the left of the ball but Kye Taylor, who was on the right side, took the kick, bent it around the wall and the rising shot soared into the top corner of the net.
If Villa wasn’t energized before, the goal at 27 minutes served to pick up the pace even more.
From that point on Villa continued to make excellent runs and had a couple of glorious chances to increase its lead.
At 35 minutes David Bertrand had an opening but spotted Kyle Vasseur all alone in front of the goal. His pass came right onto the foot of Vasseur but the veteran hurried his shot and chipped the ball just over the crossbar.
Five minutes later Vasseur sent a beautiful free kick in from 35 yards and the rebound came to Taylor who crossed it through the penalty box. With the keeper completely out of the picture three Villa strikers, McLean, Bertrand and Vasseur, came up empty as they lunged for the ball.
Squandered chances were discussed during the break but coaches were pleased with the effort overall and implored the team to keep it up in the second half.
It answered the call with a couple of good runs early but Vasseur had his shot go wide and Bertrand’s flew over the crossbar.
Villa did convert however, when, after some great ball movement, Bertrand rushed down the right sideline and put a low cross in to the Gorge goal.
The ball bounced to Brandon Knox who had his shot blocked but he pounced on the rebound with a sliding shot that found the open net.
Up 2-0 with 25 minutes to go Villa slipped into a defensive mode which turned out to be a big mistake.
Pressure from Gorge caused a mad scramble in front of the Villa net where Liknes made one save but couldn’t recover to block the shot off the rebound.
The goal, at the 74th minute, fired up Gorge for the remainder of the game but even with the addition of four minutes it ran out of time before it could do any more damage.
“It wasn’t our prettiest 90 minutes of soccer,” said coach Zroback “but we got the job done.”
Of the streak Zroback said, “One game at a time, but I know there are going to be a lot of eyes on our game next week. It’s a very important game for other teams in our division,” he said of relegation possibilities. “Gorge and Nanaimo all want us to beat Gordon Head. For us, winning could potentially put us in third place.”
Villa will meet Gordon Head at 6 pm on Saturday, February 18 in Victoria.
