The Penticton Hyundai Pinnacles under-21 women’s team is moving on to defend the Bill Gillespie Challenge Cup, while the Tim Horton’s Pinnacles men’s soccer season is over.
The women’s team defeated West Vancouver FC (WVFC) 2-0 in Pacific Coast Soccer League Reserve Division playoff action Saturday afternoon at King’s Park. The Pinnacles opened the scoring on a shot by Crystal Schuder that ended up being an own goal by WVFC. With less than 10 minutes remaining in the game, Bryanne Francisco set up Christine Levesque for the 2-0 marker.
Pinnacles coach Ray Hintz said his team had some strong points, but they weren’t as consistent as he would have liked.
“Give credit to West Vancouver, they were tough up front,” said Hintz, following the win.
One habit Hintz didn’t like were his players giving up to ball too many times. He also said their performance was up and down.
The Pinnacles now move on to play for the Bill Gillespie Challenge Cup on Sunday at 11 a.m. They will play the winner between the Peninsula Co-op Highlanders and Kelowna United.
The Tim Horton’s Pinnacles lost to the Victoria Highlanders 2-1 in a shootout. The Pinnacles opened the scoring on a goal by Randy Hubber, but couldn’t hold their lead in the second half. The Highlanders got the equalizer on a corner kick.
“We were unlucky to concede the way we did off of a set piece,” said Pinnacles player/coach Wyatt Seddon-Johnstone. “I thought we played very well.”
In the shootout, Brett Depner got the Pinnacles first goal, then the Highlanders beat Brady van Ryswyk on their first shot. James Taylor then scored and the Highlanders tied it again. Ryan Jerry and Hubber were both denied by the Highlanders keeper, while van Ryswyk wasn’t able to stop the Highlanders third and fourth attempts.
Seddon-Johnstone said he didn’t feel the Highlanders had generated many quality scoring chances in the game, compared to what they created.
“We just either weren’t on or just weren’t lucky enough today,” said Seddon-Johnston, adding that some players are dejected. “The older guys are a bit better because they know how to deal with that a bit better. It’s going to take them a while to get over this. We were anticipating the best for this group to get into the final to win the cup. To go out the way we did was tough.”
Final coverage of the PCSL playoffs will be in Wednesday’s issue of the Western News.
