Five games into the schedule, Powell River Villa remains undefeated after thrashing Cordova Bay Red Barn Bobcats 5-0 on Saturday afternoon.
The lopsided victory gives the team a solid first place seeding in Division 3B of Vancouver Island Soccer League and after another impressive offensive display moves Villa past Alberni into the lead in goal differential with a plus 18.
The weatherman earned a first star with sunny skies and a dry pitch for the match which meant the younger Villa squad could use its speed against the older and bigger 10-man Bobcat side.
The Bobcats held their own in the first 10 minutes but Villa gradually started to take over possession and turned scoring chances into goals.
Rob Devlin, sort of, got things started at 11 minutes with a header that found the mark.
“It was a great cross in,” he said, “and I was going to win the header but the guy muscled me out of the way in order to get his head on it. In doing so he had to put it in his own net so if he hadn’t had it I would have.”
Villa’s second goal came minutes later when Nick Van’t Schip drove a ball through a screen.
“Bo [Kwan] got sent through the middle on a nice through ball from Jorge [Reyes],” he said. “He dangled around one defender and heeled it back to me on the 18-yard line and I chipped it over the second defender.”
With Villa up 2-0, the Bobcats got an assist on the next goal when they botched a back pass and Brody Harry raced in to pick up the loose ball, then beat the keeper on a great solo effort.
Fresh legs came in at the half and within five minutes Curtis McMillan outran everyone down the left wing and beat the keeper on the far post to go up 4-0.
The Bobcats were clearly tiring as the game went on but suffered another setback when a collision over a header resulted in one of their players needing medical attention.
A goal kick and challenge for the ball at centre field ended up with Reyes landing on top of the Bobcat resulting in a deep cut and necessary departure to Powell River General Hospital.
Down to just nine men, the Bobcats never quit but were virtually helpless when Van’t Schip got his second signature goal of the game to finish the scoring.
“Devo crossed it in to the corner of the 18,” he recalled, “and it was the first touch far post—my specialty.”
After the game he was asked if it was difficult to remain focused in a game that was so one-sided.
“It’s not hard to stay focused,” he said, “but it’s hard to keep the game pace the same with the same hype because there is so much opening.”
The issue of travel has become a focal point of discussion within the league but Villa players aren’t buying it.
“That’s the biggest difference between Div 2 and Div 3—the travelling and the depth of the bench,” said Devlin. “So teams come up here not fielding their best squads and have better squads back home, but we have good depth this year and we’ve been doing well on the road and undefeated so far.”
Van’t Schip said there is a good reason for Villa’s success so far.
“There’s a fire,” he said of Villa. “Everyone on the squad is dedicated this year, comes out to every practice and we’re all working 110 per cent to get to the spot we think we deserve to be in and that’s Div 2.”
Winning is contagious and Devlin said, “there is some trash talking going on as well from Victoria teams and they think, ‘oh yeah, Powell River is not as good as they say they are,’ but they’ve yet to prove us wrong and we’ve still done the business.”
This week Villa takes on the league’s top two goal scorers when it hosts Alberni Athletics at 1:30 pm on Sunday, October 19 at Cranberry Field.
