The Cowichan 49ers overcame what head coach Kevin James called “another notoriously slow, terrible start” on Saturday to trounce Vic West H2X 5-1.
Coming out of a 1-1 first half, James gave the masters team a serious talk at the break about work ethic and desire, which may have helped turn their fortunes around as they went on to score four unanswered goals in the second half.
“We’re going to change a few things as far as the warmup goes, get to games earlier, move forward and have better starts,” James said. “It’s one of those things I’ve got to work on.”
James felt that Vic West was the better team over the first 45 minutes of the match.
“In the first half, I think they outworked us,” he said. “They had a little bit more desire. They pressed us right from the get-go. We were on our heels a bit. The combination of not being ready for kickoff and them coming at us like that, we were caught off guard.”
Vic West continued to play hard in the second half. Cowichan’s third goal, an own-goal off a defender’s head, deflated Vic West a bit. In addition to the own-goal, Cowichan got two from Stu Barker, who now has seven goals over the team’s first two league games, and one each from George Thomas and Ryan Fusick.
The 49ers won the Island masters championship in their first two seasons, and are definite contenders once again, but James wants to make sure his players don’t take victory for granted.
“The big thing is that I don’t want us to be complacent, just because we’re playing a team that on paper isn’t as well-known as ours,” he said. “If you get complacent, there are lots of teams in this league that can take points from you.”
The 49ers will play their first road game of the season this Friday when they visit Bays United at Oak Bay High School.
Cowichan’s other masters entry, the Steelheads, earned their first win of the season, beating CB Bobcats Alumni 4-0 on goals by Daniel Hudson, Jim Noon, Marshall Wilkins and Sergio Luis Soto Garcia. The Steelheads return home this Saturday to host Vic West Academy Dental at 8 p.m.