The West Coast Auto Group U13 Boys Metro Selects won a provincial title that has been a long time coming.
The squad, coached by Jason Symmons, Chris Peat and Brian Peat hammered Surrey/Guildford United on Sunday, winning the Provincial A Cup competition at Langley’s Willoughby turf by a score of 5-2.
The Provincial Cup win marked the first for any team from the Ridge Meadows/Mission area in past 11 years.
West Coast dominated the first half, with a big possession advantage and tenacious defensive ball pressure.
Mckenzie Begg opened the scoring with a 40-yard bomb that eluded the Surrey keeper and rewarded the team for an excellent start to the match.
West Coast kept up the pressure and Andrew Peat took over from there scoring his first two of four goals to give West Coast a 3-0 cushion entering the break.
The second half saw SGU and West Coast trade goals and as time wound down a well-deserved win in front of a large, partisan West Coast crowd.
“West Coast’s coaches did an excellent job managing the squad throughout the tournament, evident by the fresh looking side that arrived at the final ready to play, after a gruelling 15 months of build-up to the tournament,” said Chris Begg, vice president of the club, in a press release.
“The boys’ ability to focus and channel years of training into a single match was evident from the outset, as West Coast was clearly the better side and played their strongest game of the tournament.”
To qualify for the final, West Coast posted 2 win and 1 draw record in round-robin play. They beat first place MSL league finisher Surrey Guildford United on Thursday 3-2 on goals by Mckenzie Begg, Andrew Peat and Rhys Caverly.
Friday, West Coast followed up the win with a tight 0-0 draw with Coquitlam Metro Ford where West Coast’s back four were pressured, but withstood the storm with two amazing saves by West Coast’s keeper Brett Selbie.
Playing much larger than his size, Selbie’s athleticism allowed him, out of no where, to get a hand on shots labelled for just under the crossbar and deflect the ball to safety.
Saturday was a top-of-the-table affair against the Kamloops Blaze, also with one win and one draw in their first two matches. West Coast handled the weather, played in 30 degree heat, well, and walked away with a 2-1 victory to book a place in the finals.
Kai Vockeroth and Nick Agafitei scored what proved to be enough to head to the final on a winning note with Kamloops pressing until the end for an equalizer.
To get into the Provincials West Coast pulled out an exciting 2-0 extra-time win over the Coquitlam Metro Ford Revolution in the Coastal Cup final in May to punch their ticket to final tournament.
The win meant gold in the BC Soccer Coastal A Cup and a trip to provincials as the top seed. The game was a tight affair with both teams working hard but neither generating many quality chances. CMF had a free kick glance of the top of the crossbar in strong winds but their strike force was held in check by West Coast’s strong back four including Ryan Cordoni, Mckenzie Begg, Bryce McKenzie and Connor Haig other than one fine save early in the second by West Coast’s keeper Selbie.
Peat had the best chance to win it in regulation for West Coast with a semi breakaway mid-way through the second half also forcing the CMF keeper into a fine save.
CMF created a nervy finish for West Coast in the final minutes of regulation with a break, but a timely goal-line save by Haig kept things level at 0-0. Extra time saw a different West Coast team take the field who dominated the two 10 minute halves. Caverly and Ethan Symmons who had been in tough against a three-man CMF center of the park formation for the entire game wore down the opponents and elevated their play at crunch time.
Peat scored the winner five minutes into extra time on a slick through ball from Agafitei and a neat outside-of-the-foot finish to the far post. West Coast kept up the pressure and Peat scored his second to put the game out of reach with a brilliant turn and volley off the near post with four minutes remaining.
Players erupted onto the field with the final whistle and a well-deserved win for West Coast after a second place regular season league finish.
Peat also received the MSL player of the year award recognizing the top 12-year-old in Lower Mainland MSL league.
This provincial final victory capped an undefeated run for the boys dating back to Nov. 4 and encompassing 27 games which included a 1-0 defeat of Abbotsford’s BC Premier League team.
The Coastal A cup win marked the first ever for any boys team from the Ridge Meadows/Mission area, in the inaugural season of the West Coast Auto Group Football Club.
“Giving players from the area the best possible development and a consistent chance of playing on top-level teams was part of the motivation in unifying the local clubs under one umbrella” said VP Begg.
“The club recognized the need to transition from one run exclusively by volunteers to include professional leadership in both technical and administrative areas to ensure the quality of programming can be maintained in the long term for the future of our players. Famous clubs such as FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich are both great examples of non-profit organizations taking things to the next level.
“Our goal is for West Coast to do the same for the Ridge Meadows/Mission Communities and results like these clearly demonstrate we are headed in the right direction.”
