The Cowichan 49ers scraped together a team for an 8-0 win over Fernwood Dragons at Central Park on Sunday afternoon to finish with a perfect record in pool play, advancing to the A division for the rest of the masters soccer season.
“We were short a few players,” Cowichan head coach Kevin James said. “A few managed to come that had other arrangements, but they put the team first, so we had a couple of subs.”
The 49ers got off to an excellent start, with goals from Stu Barker at seven minutes and Neall Rowlings at 10 minutes setting the tone for the match.
“We got two goals pretty quick and we were able to continue to play well,” James said.
Having never before faced Fernwood, the 49ers didn’t know quite what to expect, so they tried a different approach to the game.
“We usually pressure teams,” James noted. “But we sat back and took a neutral posture to see how the game went and how they played.”
Even though they weren’t pushing it, the Niners kept scoring. George Thomas struck at 14 minutes, and Rowlings got his second of the day at 30 minutes, and Cowichan took a 4-0 lead into halftime.
“We’ve been focusing on getting better starts,” James said. “There was a bit of a lull in the beginning of the second half, but we managed to get out of the funk and score a few more goals.”
Barker and Rowlings both completed hat tricks in the second half, and Dave Tuckey rounded out the scoring. Rob McIntyre recorded his fourth clean sheet in the Cowichan goal.
Cowichan will be joined in the masters A division by the Cordova Bay Bobcats and Vic West H2X, who finished second and third in the red pool, and blue pool teams UVic Alumni, Gorge FC and SFFC Forest. The 49ers will take their seven wins and 39-3 goal differential forward, where they will play another 10 matches against the other top teams.
“It will definitely be a tougher road,” James said. “We need to bring the same mindset every game. We know the competition is that much stronger. We can’t afford to take a weekend off.”
All masters teams will get this coming weekend off as the new division schedules get drawn up.
The Cowichan Steelheads wrapped up play in the blue pool with a 3-0 win over JDF Alliance at Sherman Road turf on Saturday night. With three wins, one draw and three losses, the Steelheads placed fourth in blue pool, missing promotion to the A division by one spot, and will move on to the B division for the rest of the year.