The Kelowna Huskies boys Under-18 soccer team were nearly perfect in winning the West Coast Cup soccer tournament.
The Huskies, comprised of players from the Mission area of Kelowna, scored 10 times and didn’t allow a goal en route to the tournament title.
Team captain Andy Stevenson was named the tournament Most Valuable Player while David Denton was the top scorer with four goals through the event. Matt Fielding and Mackenzie Rigg also had strong tournaments, according to coach Tony Overton.
“We have a very strong squad of players and they have been training very hard for this competition,” said Overton. “The standard of Metro teams in Vancouver is very high so all the boys should be very proud of their gold medal performance.”
After winning its first three games to advance to the gold medal game, the Huskies came up against the West Coast Football Club, the home side at the tournament.
The Huskies were full of confidence going into the final and the first half of the game was very tight with both teams looking for a way to break the deadlock. With just minutes remaining before half time Dylan Wagner powered his way into the 18 yard box before pulling the ball back to Stevenson who opened the scoring and put the Huskies ahead 1-0.
In the second half the Huskies started to open up and create a number of scoring opportunities but some very strong defending from the home team continued to kept them in the game. With 10 minutes remaining in the match Denton scored to make it 2-0. The Huskies continued to apply pressure and went ahead 3-0 when Wagner again opened up some space down the right wing before crossing for Matt Fielding who made no mistake with the third goal of the game.
Team players: Mike Sexton, Dan Perry, Jordan Powers, Quintin Torresan, Walker Shanks, Joe Overton, Alex Beutle, Ben McDonald, Jesse Nanci, Matt Fielding, Keevin Lee, Spencer Young, Dylan Wagner, Andy Stevenson, David Denton and Braden Peters.
