The Surrey United held off the Thompson Okanagan FC 1-0 Sunday in the EA Sports B.C. Soccer Premier League Under 13 Boys playoff final in Richmond.
TOFC stared well and absorbed a lot of pressure from a well organized first-place Surrey team. Vernon’s Taitum MacAulay pulled off an excellent early save and pushed a powerful shot over the bar to safety.
Connor Glennon of Vernon delivered a good corner into the heart of the Surrey box where Sam MacDonald scrambled with the defence and managed to get a shot on goal only to have it saved by the keeper.
TOFC won a free kick and Mitch Morgan headed the ball to Glennon for a breakaway. His shot just eased over the bar.
“Surrey changed their formation after the half and came out with 3-4-3,” said TOFC assistant coach Darren Wimbleton. “TOFC continued where they had left off from the first half and made it extremely difficult to be broken down.
“It would take either a stoke of excellence or luck to decide this game and that is exactly what happened with Surrey winning the ball on the edge of the box and hitting a superb strike beating Taitum and giving them the lead.
“TOFC gave an outstanding performance and battled to the end but was unable to clinch the cup.”
In addition to MacAulay, Wimbleton praised Tim Sollinger of Vernon, MacDonald and Turner Woodruff as stars of the game for TOFC.”
Mees Gerlaken and Jared Quibel of Vernon also played for TOFC.
Surrey went undefeated in the regular season, beating TOFC twice by one goal.
The Premier league is the highest level of youth soccer in the province.
Shaun Flanagan of Kelowna is head coach of TOFC.
