Wild shocks Bombers in Kootenay Soccer Final
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr,
The Nelson Daily Sports
There will be no 15th consecutive trip to the B.C. High School AAA Boy’s Soccer Championships for the L.V. Rogers Bombers.
The Mount Baker Wild ended the illustrious streak by the Bombers, knocking off the perennial Kootenay champ 3-2 in Wednesday afternoon in the Cranbrook.
“We played a good game but in the end a lack of experience and confidence caused us to come up short,” said Bomber head coach Keith Williams in a text message to The Nelson Daily following the game.
Williams was looking for his tenth straight trip to taking a team from LVR to the prestigious tournament that features the elite high school players in the province.
Most of the scoring came in the first half. After the Wild opened the scoring, Bomber midfielder Luke Mori was fouled inside the penalty area. Striker Mitch Melanson calmly stepped up to the spot and buried the penalty shot to even the score at 1-1.
LVR took the lead when Mori converted a cross past the Mount Baker goalkeeper. However, the lead was short lived as the Wild tied the game at 2-2 minutes later.
The teams exchanged body blows in the second half with each squad squandering significant chances.
With the game in injury time, Baker made a last push as the host club pressured the Bombers. The push was too much as Baker scored with two minutes remaining in the contest.
LVR attempted to counter but time ran out giving the Wild the Kootenay High School AAA Boy’s Soccer title — its first in 15 long years.
“This is the best Mount Baker team we faced in nine years as LVR boy’s soccer coach,” Williams admitted. “They never let us get our game in order. (They had) very good defence pressure and strong long ball wing to wing movement.”
Williams took the Bombers to a 12th place finish in 2009.
During his time coaching at LVR the best finish came a few years ago when the likes of Mark Dodsworth, Isaac Rosenberg and Avery Bartels took the Bombers to a bronze medal finish.
Prior to the nine-year run for Williams was the combo of Mike Sedlbauer and Hogue Tyler that took LVR to the championship tournament for five consecutive years.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
