By Josh Rolland
The Carihi Senior Boys soccer team officially kicked off their 2019 soccer season with a northern league play day on Teusday, Sept. 24.
The Tyees matched up in their first league game of the season against Highland Secondary from Comox Valley. After a flying start to the pre-season, confidence for the Tyees was high. Carihi kicked off first but it was Highland who set the tone defensively in the opening moments of the game by putting pressure on the tyees in possession.
Midway into the first half, a Highland defender intercepted the ball from a breakdown in the Tyees’ midfield and unleashed an impressive strike into the top left corner of the net. Things seemed to only get worse for the Tyees when Highland added another goal in their favour before the end of halftime.
Finding an answer to Highlands’ two goals proved to be a challenge and the game ended 2-0 for Highland, marking Carihi senior teams’ first defeat in the north in over three years.
After the loss and with thin numbers, the Tyees brought up three players from the Junior team. This proved to be very beneficial. Carihi were searching for a performance to keep their season alive, and quickly produced by going back to their ways of patient and confident interplay against Isfeld. Just before the end of the first half, winger Eric Phoung found himself on the end of a through ball by midfielder Tsubasa Mukainakano, and capitalized for the Tyees. Shortly after co-captain Joshua Rolland added to the Tyees’ scoreline, making it 2-0 as the first half concluded. Carihi finished the game 4-0 with another goal by Rolland, and a debut goal for Junior, Caro Ignacio.
The final game of the day saw another must-win match for the Tyees. Their opponents were a familiar and respected one, Brooks Secondary from Powell River. Following their strong win against Isfeld, the Tyees asserted themselves as the dominant side in possession and were quickly searching for a chance to go ahead.
Carihi found their chance when winger Victor Lee slipped through and snuck the ball past the Brooks’ keeper to put the Tyees up 1-0 in their most important game of the season so far. Carihi ended the game with a convincing 5-0 win with goals coming from Caro Ignacio, Marcus Shankar, Tsubasa Mukainakano, and Corson Arbour.
The Tyees lace up their boots again for league play on Tuesday, Oct. 8 in Comox. There they will play Carihi Senior B team and Georges P. Vanier. In between, they travel to Nanaimo to play AAA teams Nanaimo and District Secondary and Dover Bay next Monday, Sept. 30.
Junior Boys kick off their season with Soccer League Play day Wednesday, Sept. 25
The Carihi junior boys soccer started off their league season with a play day at Carihi.
Their first game was against Brooks. The Tyees made a strong start but Brooks defended well, keeping excellent shape.
However, 15 minutes in, Sacha Deschenes made a penetrating pass to Mukainkano who went around their two center backs and slotted it to the bottom right corner, making it 1-0.
Mukainkano is an Ishikari exchange student who loves the game and is playing on both the Junior and the Senior teams at the school.
With an influential half time team talk by head coach Fergus Bagley, Carihi were able to extend their lead with two more goals from Caro Pendueles and Alvaro. Logan Pierce recorded the shut out in the 3-0 win.
Next game saw the Tyees take on Mark Isfeld Secondary School who had defeated Brooks 3-2 earlier in the day. It proved another strong outing for the young Tyees who took an early two-goal lead as striker Caro Pendueles scored a brace. The final score was 5-0.
All in all it was a very successful day by the Carihi junior team and the squad are very excited about the second league play in Comox in October.
