Not wanting to put their bye weeks to waste, the teams in Div. 4 of the Vancouver Island Soccer League opted to schedule crossover games between the two pools this season, and Cowichan Red Arrow’s turn came last weekend.
By luck of the draw, it ended up being a battle between the two second-place teams as Cowichan squared off with pool A’s current No. 2, Fernwood United, at Finlayson Park.
Cowichan controlled most of the game, but it was Fernwood who struck first inside the opening 20 minutes.
“A very good run through our midfield led to a ball out to their left,” Cowichan coach Will Chaster reported. “A nutmeg pass into the middle of our six-yard box passed our keeper and was poked home.”
Fernwood led 1-0 at halftime, but the second half would belong to Cowichan.
“Fernwood may have decided to play defence and run out the clock,” Chaster considered. “Or our adjustments at half kept us in complete control of the game.”
Late in the second half, Fernwood was awarded a penalty kick that Cowichan backup goalkeeper James McBride managed to stop. Red Arrow finally broke through at the 84-minute mark when Cole Lawrence took a long ball from Jonas Golf-Myers and scored. A minute later, Golf-Myers put Cowichan ahead 2-1 when he took a pass from Shermag Joseph at the top of Fernwood’s 18 and chipped it past the keeper.
Cowichan held a strong backline after that, and even after giving up a couple of free kicks, took the opportunity to break, with Matt Owen racing into the Fernwood end and narrowly missing a third Cowichan goal.
Cowichan remains second in pool B and will visit Prospect Lake at Layritz Park this Friday at 8 p.m. Prospect currently sits sixth of seven teams in the pool.