Ballenas Secondary School’s Jr. Boys soccer team saw its season come to a sliding halt on the pitches of Courtenay last week (Oct. 25, 26) as they finished fourth at the eight team North Island finals and just missed the third and final berth into the Islands.
The Whalers got off to a great start with two wins on opening day Thursday, beating Vanier 4-2 and Dover Bay 4-0. Ian Whibley led the charge for Ballenas with a pair of goals in each game.
Day two wasn’t so kind to the blue and white as they came up on the short end of a 3-1 final to Carihi and were blanked 2-0 by the Brooks Bobcats.
The weather, said BSS teacher/coach Larry Stefanek, “was a torrential downpour for the whole day Friday; games were shortened to 25 minute halves rather than 35 minutes to save the field.
“Too bad,” surmised Stefanek, who got help with the team this year from assistant coaches Dave Reynolds and Andy Sharman, “(but) that is how it goes sometimes. We lost to a couple of good teams who were better than us on the day. We hit some injuries, and bounces did not go our way,” he said, then made the point the local side finished 4-1 in league play and 8-3-1 overall and was a “good season for our boys overall.”
