The Kelowna United U16 girls kicked off the 2015 Thompson Okanagan Youth Soccer League campaign on the right foot with a 2-0 victory Sunday over Vernon.
Avery Lawrence opened the scoring on the Mission artificial turf field, before Brooklyn Kostiuk passed to Jordan Orsted who scored for a two-goal lead.
Despite playing with an injury, Fiona Reha earned the shutout for United.
Although playing out of her normal position of goalie, Regan Medley was strong on both offense and defense.
Among other opening weekend games for United:
• U14 boys—United 4 Shuswap 1
Christopher Vandenheuvel opened the scoring assisted by the one-touch passes from Jagger Thomas and Braeden Cangiano.
Harry Bortolon provided an exceptional feed on the games second goal to Cam Sorensen who volleyed a shot into the bottom left corner. Sorensen scored his second of the match fed by a beautiful passing play between Jonah Donahue and Cangiano for the game’s third goal. The fourth KU goal was a precision through ball from Bortolon right to the boot of Cangiano who sidestepped the onrushing keeper to smoothly deposit the final goal of the match into the back of the net.
Coleton Smith and Gavin Edall shared the goaltending duties.
• U12 boys—United 8 Kamloops 2; United 10 Shuswap 2
The Kelowna U12 boy Spartans had a stellar season opener with a win over Kamloops White on Sunday. Tobin Woodworth buried one in the back of the net after some solid tic tack toe passing with Camden Elkin for the forth point, and demonstrating that pressuring the goalie can pay off, Colby Yurkiw made an addition to the score sheet.
Game 2 of the season for the Spartans was a well played game of restraint with a solid victory over Shuswap. There were no hats on the field, but there could have been as Colby Yurkiw made his mark in the first eleven minutes, and Connor Schneider was in perfect position for a goal as Ethan DeKruif made a beautiful cross it in the last minutes of the first half.
• U11 girls—United Buckaroos 2 Kamloops Orange 0; United Buckaroos 3 Kamloops Blue 0
Teamwork and passing was key to the first win. Sarah Donnick and Kambria Mellum scored the goals.
In Game 2, Sarah Donnick and Kadance Mollin tallied for Kelowna.
The Kelowna Thunder U11 girls played against Pentiction and Vernon.
In the first game, Thunder goals came from Anna Hopley, Shae Taylor, Paisley Kerstens, Madison Banman and Shannon Rowe.
In the second, Kaydee Copithorne and Shannon Rowe scored the goals, while excellent midfield coverage was supplied by Ava Craig.
