Despite fielding what head coach Glen Martin thought was their best lineup so far this Vancouver Island Soccer League season, Cowichan LMG didn’t put forward their best performance on Friday night, but they still managed to escape with a 2-1 win over Gorge at the Sherman Road turf.
“I don’t think we had our best stuff,” Martin said. “It wasn’t our best effort. We were pretty fortunate to win that game 2-1. We have to be better than that.”
Gorge outworked Cowichan in the early going, Martin admitted, but Cowichan got on the board first when Stevan Zorich scored against the play.
Gorge carried much of the play, but didn’t necessarily dominate the game, Martin said.
“They had a lot of possession, but not a lot of chances to score,” he explained. “It was one of those games where it looks like they’re outplaying you, but they’re not outplaying you, they’ve just got the ball more.”
Cowichan was a little better in the second half, and went up 2-0 on a penalty shot by Craig Gorman in the 70th minute, Gorman’s second game-winner in his second match back with Cowichan this season.
“I felt we needed an insurance goal,” Martin said. “And in the end we did.”
Gorge converted a penalty shot of their own late in the match to take the clean sheet away from Cowichan goalkeeper Darian Achurch. The infraction wasn’t necessarily deserving of a penalty shot, but Martin considered it a makeup call for a missed transgression shortly before.
The performance wasn’t ideal, but the result worked out for Cowichan.
“Three points is pretty good,” Martin said. “We’ll take it and move on. I was happy to win, but the team can play a lot better than they did.”
Now with five wins, three draws and one loss on the season, Cowichan has vaulted into fourth place in Div. 1, with two games in hand on all three teams ahead of them in the standings. Cowichan will visit Comox Valley United this Saturday. Comox sits last in the division, but just earned a tie with the league-leading Mid Isle Mariners.