Three Thompson Okanagan Football Club teams are on the verge of playing in a B.C. Premier Cup championship game.
The U16 TOFC girls will host the Coastal FC in a B.C. Premier Soccer League semifinal match at Beasley Park in Lake Country on Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. while the U18 TOFC boys travel to Cloverdale on Saturday for their semifinal meeting with Surrey United and the U17 boys are in Surrey, also against the host United.
Photo Gallery (66 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page
The winners will advance to the BCPSL Cup finals the following weekend at Cloverdale Athletic Park.
First-place finishers in the regular season of the top youth soccer league in the province, the U16 TOFC girls earned a berth in this weekend’s semifinal by defeating the seventh-place Vancouver Island Wave 5-0 in quarter-final play at Beasley on the past weekend.
Kelowna’s Sydney Kolodziej scored twice and assisted on a goal from her midfield position while defender Lydia Keating of Kelowna contributed a goal to go along with markers from midfielder Jordan King and forward Kiera Howaniec, the latter also assisting on a pair of goals.
Kelly Kosolofski of Kamloops was the shutout goaltender for TOFC, who finished with a 10-3-1 record in the regular season and is made up of many of the players who won a B.C. Premier Cup in 2016 at Kelowna’s Apple Bowl.
The TOFC girls are considered favourites to move on the Premier Cup final as Coastal FC, based in Surrey, finished the regular season with a 4-7-3 record. But Coastal did upset second-place Surrey United 2-1 in quarter-final action in Cloverdale on Sunday, so cannot be taken lightly.
Semifinal play in the U18 boys will see the third-place Thompson Okanagan FC (8-4) up against a second-place Surrey United team that finished with an 8-1-3 record in the regular season.
In their two regular-season matchups, Surrey edged TOFC 3-2 in Cloverdale while the Thompson Okanagan earned a 4-3 victory at Mission Sports Fields in Kelowna.
TOFC U18s defeated sixth-place Vancouver Island Wave 5-2 in quarter-final play on Saturday at Beasley Park for the right to advance to the semifinal and vie for a spot in the Premier Cup championship game.
Kelowna’s Gregor Smith led the offensive onslaught with three goals and assisted on the opening goal by Chris McIntosh of Vernon while Giovanni Trotta of Kamloops rounded out the scoring for the winners, who had built up a 4-0 lead.
TOFC coach, David Broadhurst, lauded the play of his team that went into the game with a number of injuries.
“We had to make last-minute changes in our formation and that could have unhinged what has been an incredible season,” he said. “But it didn’t. The boys adjusted from a 4-3-3 to the 4-4-2 seamlessly and took control of the game right from the start.”
The TOFC U17 boys, fourth-place finishers with a 5-6-1 record, came from behind to edge Fusion FC (Richmond/Vancouver) 4-3 in their quarter-final game on Saturday at Beasley Park for the right to play in against first-place Surrey (9-1-2).
Trailing 3-0 early in the quarter-final, TOFC made it 3-1 before the half and scored three more times in the second half. The winning goal came from Justin Matte of West Kelowna — his second of the game — in the dying minutes. Liam Glennon of Vernon also scored twice for the winners in their comeback victory.
Photo Gallery (66 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page
