A pair of Vancouver Island Wave boys teams, stocked largely with players from Greater Victoria, reached the top of the soccer mountain in the province last weekend, capturing their respective B.C. Premier Cup championships.
Bays United soccer product Sam Zacharias tallied the winning goal with about 15 minutes to play, lifting the Under-16 Wave to a 1-0 victory over Mountain United in the final June 24 in Coquitlam.
The Wave, coached by Andrew Latham, got on a roll at the right time, having finished fifth in provincial league play. They opened the playoffs by knocking off Coastal FC, then defeated Coquitlam Metro-Ford 1-0 in the semifinals June 17 to reach the championship weekend.
Other team members are Reid Adams, Salem Almardy, Jackson Brice, Nathan Chow, Johnny Cole, Kyran Collins, Jake Dziwenka, Cameron Holman, Torin Lightbody, Cody MacArthur, Mitchell Martinez, Juan Navarro, Andrew Pearse, Fraser Rideout and Sean Young.
Meanwhile, the U14 Wave got plenty of offence in their playoff run, which culminated in Saturday’s 3-1 win over top seed Surrey United in last Saturday’s final. The Wave fell behind 1-0 in the first five minutes, but rebounded with goals from Daniel Damian, Leo Sanchez and Nicholas Guildford in the second half.
The Blair Sturrock and Riley O’Neill-coached U14s, who finished third in league play, earned the distinction of winning the Island program’s first-ever boys Premier Cup title, by virtue of a slightly earlier start than their U16 clubmates. The U14s squeaked past Mountain United on penalty kicks to open the playoffs, then needed overtime to beat Coquitlam Metro-Ford 3-2 in the semifinals back on June 17.
Also on the U14 team are Jack Kelly, Caleb Vallance, Tory Barbon, Dylan Atwal, Hiatt Grant, Kai Toker, Ben Creswick, Quinten Henry, Armaan Nijjar, Jasper Morris, Jack Napier-Ganley, Lane Geggie Bowker, Corson Greig, Leon Lafuente and Divyesh Nagarajan.
Two other Wave teams played in last weekend’s finals. The U18 girls earned a silver medal after losing a hard-fought 1-0 decision in overtime to Coastal FC, while the regular season champion U13 boys were downed 2-1 by Surrey United.
