Morning Star Staff
The Kalamalka Lakers were one win away from securing a provincial berth going into Saturday afternoon play in the Okanagan Valley Senior AA Boys Soccer League playdowns at Marshall Field.
Kal advanced to Saturday’s semifinals knowing that the top three teams advance to the B.C. finals, Nov. 19-21, at the Burnaby Lake Soccer Complex.
The Lakers, who won the North Zone title a week ago, opened Friday with a 6-0 victory over the Westsyde Whundas of Kamloops.
“We had a great first game against Westsyde, a very rough and dirty team,” said Kal rookie head coach Cari Dyck. ‘We had to step up our physical game and once we matched them, they got very frustrated and we dominated play.”
Matt Kreutz and Liam Ross both supplied two snipes for the Lakers, while defender Jan Lynden connected on a scorching 30-yard strike and Nik Mersch also had a single.
Kreutz scored once with a sweet left-footed volley after a fabulous feed from defender Joe McArdle. Ross had both his goals assisted by his brother Lucas.
The Lakers then bowed 3-1 to the big, tough and rested Okanagan Mission Huskies of Kelowna. The Huskies grabbed a 3-0 lead at the half before the Lakers picked up their play and responded on a beautiful cross from Steven Goebel and header from Liam Ross.
“I’m very proud of the boys for battling back and not giving up when they were tired and injured,” said Dyck.
The Seaton Sonics lost to the Sa-Hali Sabres of Kamloops and Summerland Rockets (no scores reported) to suffer elimination in the six-team playdowns.
