A midpack team in league play, ICST Pegasus has few peers in cup play.
The Surrey-based squad captured the Provincial Cup Sunday afternoon in Aldergrove, edging Vancouver Metro Soccer League rivals Columbus FC 1-0 in the provincial championship game.
Pegasus, owners of an 11-5-10 (won-tied-lost) record in the VMSL, finished seventh in the Premier Division.
But they reached the final of the league’s Imperial Cup competition, winning four straight games until losing 3-1 to Surrey United.
That cup run qualified Pegasus for the Provincial Cup, where four more victories in sudden-death play clinched the title.
Playing against a Columbus side which finished with six more points in league play, Pegasus dominated the game in the first half but failed to score.
“We should have put the game away in the first half,” said head coach Rob Reed. “We had four or five clear-cut chances to score. We should have been up by two or three goals.
“Then Columbus pushed back in the second half, and our goalie (Amar Dhinsa) made a fantastic save. Then we scored, and defended extremely well in the final 20 minutes.”
Jag Gill netted the winner, heading home a cross from Sahil Sandhu in the 70th minute.
Standouts for Pegasus were Andrew Reed at full back and Omari Aldridge in the midfield.
The win qualifies Pegasus for the national championships Oct. 12-17 in Montreal.
Unlike the Provincial Cup, which is a single-knockout competition played over several weeks, the national tournament begins with round robin play and has a much more condensed schedule.
“The main thing is we’re going to need everybody,” said Reed, who attended the 2004 championship as a player. “We’ll play four or five games in five days. We need a lot of players. It’s not like a one-off final. We have 24 players signed, and we’ll take all 24.”
