They came up one goal short of gold, but Oceanside’s U13 boys soccer team had a blast.
In action on the new all-weather turf field in Ladysmith last weekend for the Nanaimo and District U13 Boys year-end playdown, the Dynamite, who finished fourth in the seven-team league’s regular season, won both its games on Saturday and captured silver on Sunday.
Oceanside opened the tourney at noon Saturday with a hard-fought shoot-out win over the Nanaimo Bravehearts.
Nanaimo scored the lone goal of the opening half, and Oceanside’s Connor Pickard buried a beauty cross from Tyler Gock midway through the second half for a 1-1 tie which is how it stood after regulation time. All four Oceanside shooters that went to the line scored in the shootout; Nanaimo scored twice.
Keeper Nolin Fong was in net for the Dynamite all weekend.
Back at two hours later against the Nanaimo’s Other Guys, it was all Oceanside in a 4-nil final.
Anthony Trozzo opened the scoring with a determined effort off his own rebound, and Christian Geiger upped it to 2-0 when he blasted one in off a scramble in the box just before the half. Dynamite defender Jacob Barker scored off a howitzer from long range early in the second half and Josh Jai nailed down the win late in the game when he slotted home a penalty kick after being hauled down in the box.
“In that game our guys really poured it on with a balanced attack,” said Oceanside head coach Dave Robinson.
That win earned the Dynamite a return trip to Ladysmith for the gold medal game Sunday afternoon against the hometown Mid-Isle Spartans.
The Spartans scored just before the first half and hung on for a 1-0 win.
“Really it was quite a lucky goal,” said Robinson. “It just took a tricky bounce over our keeper on the turf field and they kicked it in.
“It was a good game. We definitely came out strong in the second half — the boys did everything they could to tie it up,” said the longtime local coach, pointing out the Spartans cleared two shots off the goal line just in time.
Robinson had extra props for his defenders and his keeper for how hard they worked on the weekend giving up only two goals in the three games.
“I have to say I’m really proud with how they performed this weekend.
“It was an accomplishment to make it to the final, and we came so close to winning it. Our guys showed improvement over the year, they always showed great sportsmanship, and were great representatives of oceanside soccer.”
