Paul West, head coach of the Red Strike U13 boys soccer team, took his team to Powell River last weekend for the BC Provincial games. He and his assistant coaches Dave Lewis, Bruce Mitchell, and Mark Jones had previously helped get the boys the silver win at the Coastal Cup games, and the gold in the Island Championships.
Comox started the first game with a quick goal by William Mitchell, which was quickly evened out by the other team. That, however, was all they were going to get because of a great job by goalie Alex Jones. Max Powsey had a breakaway for a goal, but it didn’t count because of an untimely whistle by the ref, a team spokesperson said.
The second game turned out to be quite intense with many shots on goal and hard running by Jackson Mayhew and Liam Wirth. Nic Samsom with his powerful kick, and Hank Magdanz with some great ball stopping helped keep the ball out of the Red Strike side.
Goalie Ben Chamberlin kept the other team working hard to score their only goal, with Grayson Scott doing some great ball handling and running to work the ball to the opponent’s side.
In the third game, the other team managed a quick opening score, which just encouraged the fast running and great ball controlling by Ryan Driediger and captain Christian Taylor. Danny Yeo provided some super mobile defence covering much of the field.
David Guss came up with a quick run and set up enabling Ryan West to score, evening the score. Although the other team scored again, the red Strike played strongly to the end with Sterling Lewis holding down the centre field and getting the ball back to our players quickly.
The final game showed how strong the Red Strike could be with great teamwork,and passing. Kevin “Broken Toe” Brenner was on fire defending the goal and Liam Wirth finally had his hard work paid off with a well-placed penalty shot.
Simon Anderson landed one of his clever left foot goals and David Schmidt-Schweda a shot into the top corner for another. Goals by David Guss and Nic Samson took the team to a 5-1 victory.
All in all, “a good time was had by all, the spokesperson said, and the weekend was a great season finisher for a hard-working soccer team and their coaches.
– Comox Valley Red Strike
