The Upper Island Riptide soccer club played a handful of home games this past week. On Saturday, the U14 and U16 girls hosted teams from Victoria South at Valleyview.
The U14s lost a hard fought game 1-0. For the second week in a row, the U14 girls VIPL division demonstrated that all teams will be competitive as the game was evenly played.
The U16s went down 2-0 early in the game and battled back to a 2-2 scoreline heading into halftime. In a short spell in the second half, the opposition scored three goals in 15 minutes and won the game 5-2. It was a difficult loss for some of the players returning from the BCSA A-Cup provincial gold medal-winning team this summer competing in the U15 age group. However, as with all teams facing a rebuild at the start of a season, the girls will learn that each new game presents individual and team challenges.
The U18 boys played the U18 Gorge/Lakehill/JDF/Saanich Fusion team, Sunday in Campbell River. The visitors opened the scoring in the 20th minute, but the Riptide battled back to dominate the remainder of the first half and a large portion of the second. Excellent individual performances from fullbacks Menoa Brennon and Josh Kalhouse produced effective attacking flank play, and the boys were unlucky not to even the score.
The U18 girls continued a strong start to the season with a commanding 5-0 win over Gorge. Abby Duncan (Comox) and Sydney Elliot (Powell River) each scored and assisted on the other’s first half goals. The team’s solid play continued in the second half with Meghan Lineger (Comox), Madyson Harris (Port Hardy) and Camryn Cline (Powell River) all scoring. The team hits the road for their first game of the year in Victoria, Sunday against Bays United.
The U15 boys lost 2-1 on the road Sunday to Victoria North.
“The weekend saw our teams face strong teams from southern Vancouver Island, which raised the level of play and forced our teams to respond to the level of competition,” Riptide technical director Shel Brodsgaard said. “Regardless of the results, we are in the building phase of our season, and all coaches have been able to assess both strengths and weaknesses of our own teams and the opposition. This is a 20-week season, and we are realistic that after two weeks of games all of our teams look solid and competitive.”