While most of the other Premier Division teams were participating in Imperial Cup play, the Surrey United Firefighters moved a game away from clinching a second consecutive league championship Saturday afternoon at Cloverdale Athletic Park.
United blanked the Punjab Hurricanes 2-0, moving seven points clear of the Coquitlam Metro-Ford Wolves. Surrey has just two games to play, needing to win just once to wrap up first place in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League.
The Wolves still have three games remaining, needed to win them all to stay in the race for the top spot.
United got the winning goal just 10 minutes into the contest when Angus Burke tallied his league-leading 17th goals of the season. Niall Thompson added a second goal, while Paul Shepherd made several key saves early in the game on his way to a sixth shutout.
United will play 11th-place Croatia FC in the round of 16 of the imperial Cup tomorrow (Saturday) at 2 p.m. at Cloverdale Athletic Park.
Two other Surrey teams in the Premier Division needed to win a preliminary round game to reach the round of 16 in cup play, including Akal FC, winners of just four of 22 league games and assured of relegation for next season.
Akal upset Columbus FC, currently in fifth place in the 14-team Premier Division, by a 1-0 score Sunday night at Newton Athletic Park. Donald Kambere scored against the run of the play in the 60th minute for Akal, while netminder Nuno Jesus blanked a Columbus team which played with just 10 men for the last 50 minutes of the contest.
Akal faces a tough task tomorrow, playing the Wolves in Coquitlam.
ICST Pegasus easily advanced in cup play, defeating Binger’s Army of Division One by a 5-0 score Saturday at Empire Field in Vancouver.
Azad Palani netted a pair of first half goals for Pegasus, with Sahil Sandhu, Niko Marcina and Barinder Johal scoring in the second half. Palani now has nine goals on the season, tied for seventh in the Premier Divisions scoring race.
Fyi-Amar Dhinsa was credited with the shutout for Pegasus, who will face Delta United Sunday at 2 p.m. at John Oliver Field in North Delta in the round of 16.
