With just 13 players available, Cowichan United made the quick trip north to Ladysmith on Sunday evening for a Vancouver Island Soccer League U21 division match against the Mid Isle Mariners.
Within minutes, that number was reduced to 12 after Nic Fusick was lost to an injury, but Cowichan soldiered on, playing to a 1-1 draw against their geographic rivals.
The Mariners got on the board first, scoring in the first 15 minutes, but Cowichan’s play improved steadily over the course of the match.
“We started the game slowly,” Cowichan head coach Tyler Hughes said. “We started to come into the game as it went on. We definitely did better than the first week. Mid Isle is a strong team. They probably had nine or 10 on the bench, so they had a lot of good players to choose from. We did well. We competed. We started to move the ball a lot better in the second half.”
Cowichan was awarded a penalty shot in the second half, but Logan Kits was stopped by the Mid Isle keeper. Noah Wickham slotted the tying goal with about 15 minutes left in the match. A week earlier, Wickham was playing goal for Cowichan, but this time he got to show what he can do at striker.
“He can do both,” Hughes said. “He scored a really nice goal.”
United pressed hard to go ahead as time ticked away.
“In the last 10 minutes, we came closer to getting the winner than they did,” Hughes commented. “I was quite happy with the guys. Our work rate was great. We definitely pushed them in the second half.”
Cowichan will play their next league game against Bays this coming Sunday at the Sherman Road turf, kicking off at 2:15 p.m.
The U21 team is also still in the VISL’s McGavin Cup tournament, and will play their quarterfinal game this Wednesday against Prospect Lake Div. 2 at Victoria’s Adam Kerr Park.
“It’s a small, grass field, so it should be a physical game,” Hughes said. “We’ve had five or six guys playing every game with the Div. 1 team, so it will be a similar type of game to that. We are confident; we will do our thing.”
Hughes appreciates having some additional competitive matches to play this time of year.
“From my standpoint, the more games we can play, the better,” he said. “We’re still getting used to how we’d like to be playing. The more games, the more times we can get into a game environment, push them and test them, the better.”
Because of a handful of injuries, United has been struggling for numbers. The team recently added a couple of signings, including local product Luca Klotz, who played extensively with the Div. 1 team a couple of years ago, and an international student from Brazil.
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