麻豆社国产soccer players of many ages are dominating the pitch this season, including the U-14 Red Devils and the U-13 United FC boys teams.
Both clubs compete at the District 4's Silver 1 level and are charging through Cup play with recent victories.
The Red Devils beat two North Vancouver clubs to qualify for the North Shore final. Most recently, the Red Devils beat the Gold Division's Mount Seymour Royals, which compete at a level higher than the 麻豆社国产team, in order to advance closer to the Provincial Cup.
Despite being a Silver 1 squad, Red Devils coaching staff decided to challenge Gold level teams after winning four consecutive tiering round games and earning eight wins, three draws and one loss for first place in the Silver 1 Division, where the team has scored 39 goals and allowed merely nine goals against.
"We opted to do that because we've been playing so well in the league that we didn't want to keep playing the same Silver teams," said head coach Kim Stanley.
"We could have gone up to Gold this year but we wanted to develop the team more."
The Red Devils shut out the Royals 2-0 at Quest University turf field early Sunday morning (Feb. 7). Brayden Lee started the scoring after Phoenix Karadimas caused a turnover and moved the ball to Stephan Thomas, who passed it over to Lee for a tap in. Kevin Kerr notched an insurance goal with a booming free kick to the top corner of the goal from about 30 yards out.
"It was an amazing goal," said Stanley.
The Red Devils move on to battle West Vancouver in the North Shore final with the goal of advancing closer to the Provincials. The team has already qualified to play the Killarney Warriors for the Silver 1 Commonwealth Cup at the end of March. They head into the game as defending Commonwealth Cup champions.
Stanley said he is very confident his players will succeed because they've acted so tough and determined through injuries and other setbacks.
"The boys, it doesn't seem to matter what happens, they always just elevate their game and play just amazingly together as a team," he said.
Meanwhile, the U-13 United FC team is still enjoying its North Shore Cup victory, which it won on the road at Ambleside turf against the West Vancouver Eagles on Sunday (Feb. 7).
West Vancouver struck first at the eight minute mark but United FC's Keenan Bir soon responded with a high shot for the equalizer. Kaleb Loxton put 麻豆社国产ahead four minutes later with a high hook from the left side. Liam Falloon let fly a high boomer from outside the 18 yard line to notch a security goal, and good thing, because West Vancouver added a second goal. The score ended 3-2 for United FC.
"There was good defence and it's hard to say if it's the defence or offence that keeps winning games for us," said Norm Verner, whose grandson Rhys Verner plays on the team.
United FC is undefeated in 12 regular season games, scoring 41 goals and allowing only nine against. The team moves on to Provincial play downs in March.
