ALDERGROVE – Nelson defeats Cowichan Valley 3-1
Submitted by Chris Richards, Assistant Coach, U18B Selects
The first game of provincials went really well for us. We played the Cowichan Valley Wolves, the second ranked team in the tournament. We started a little slow and it took us a couple of minutes to get on our feet. As soon as we did though, we played the ball around beautifully, our runs were purposeful. Everything we have worked on throughout the season came together in this game. We had a goal disallowed in the 15th minute, after a rifle of a shot from Jules Chopin rebounded off the keeper. Unfortunately, Luke Mori, who tucked away the rebound, was just offside. From there our heads could easily have dropped, but we kept at it and it paid off 10 minutes later. Byron Rokeby-Thomas latched on to a bad back pass, rounded the keeper who completely misjudged his pace and then slotted into the empty net. From there we never looked like losing, and 10 minutes later Yuki Miwa gave us a little bit of insurance after cutting in from the left wing, he drilled a shot right into the bottom corner leaving their goal keeper with no chance at all. From there the boys were really pumped and played a really tight possession game.
At half time Keith (Williams) and I told them to keep up the pressure and to play smart. With about 20 mins left Yuki picked the ball up again on the left wing and instead of cutting inside this time, he beat three players down the line before running along the goal line with the ball. After beating another two players he cut the ball back to Conner Adams who had made a great run in from the right wing, and slotted the ball away easily to put us up 3-0.
With about 10 minutes left the heat started to effect us a little bit, we started to look tired, and they threw everything they had at us. After about five minutes of taking the onslaught we finally broke. A long ball up from the back got lost in the sun and our keeper Kean Silverthorne couldn’t do anything. It went right to one of their players who slotted in the empty net. That woke us up a little and we rounded out the game with a solid 3-1 win.
Yuki Miwa was our man of the match for the goal and the assist, although it was hard because they all played so well.
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