The Kwalikum Kondors pitched another shutout on the pitch, this time against the Wellington Wildcats, as they cruised to a 8-0 win on Tuesday afternoon.
It’s their second straight win and second straight clean sheet for the Kondors as well, improving to 2-0 in league play on the season.
Blair Stewart, Collin Koelewyn and Jake Watson each had two goals for the Kondors, while Daniel Doukakis and Kevin Sudyko bulged the twine as well.
“It’s nice to see,” head coach Butch Gayton said. “They haven’t been the toughest of games but it’s a great way to start the season off.”
“We’re still trying to fine tune a few things here and there, so having these wins like this gives us a chance to work on things in-game while still having the competitive nature of a game at the same time. It’s been good so far and my hope is that we’ll continue to progress in the right direction as the season moves along.”
KSS will now head up Island to Campbell River for the Carihi tournament this weekend, where they’ll see a lot of competition that will be at the Island and potentially provincial tournaments.
“These tournaments are good measuring sticks for all teams,” Gayton said. “It really gives you the chance to not only see what you’ve got but what other teams are bringing to the table as well.”
“We’ll be seeing teams that aren’t in our league, so we’ll have an idea of what to expect should we make the Islands and even possibly the provincials too. That way, we can see where we measure up against the rest of the competition and then we can bring all that back to league play, knowing what we need to do to get to where we want to be and that’s the provincials.”
This marks the second tournament for the Kondors this season, after they kicked off with a tournament in Surrey. The Kondors didn’t have the finish in their first tournament they were hoping for but gained some good experience on the field and will be looking to once again gain more experience this weekend, along with better results.
“We’re pretty excited,” senior Tony Trozzo said. “After our tournament in Surrey, we kind of felt a little down. But after our first two league games, we feel like we’re rolling again.”
“There’s going to be some good competition at the Carihi tournament and I think that we’re going to be ready for the challenge.”
Next week the Kondors are back to league play, as they’ll have two games in the week. First on the slate is a match at home (3:30 p.m. kickoff at QB Rec. Field) against the Dover Bay Dolphins from Nanaimo.
The Kondors will then prepare for their cross-town derby against the Ballenas Whalers on Thursday afternoon; 3:30 p.m. start time at QB Rec. as well.
“Those games will be exciting,” Gayton said. “Dover always has a solid team and it’s much of the same with them this year. They’re going to be a tough, competitive team that will test us from whistle to whistle. With Ballenas, it doesn’t matter what both teams look like, it’s always going to be competitive no matter what. That’s what makes it so fun when these teams play against one another.”
