It may have been the most anti-climactic championship win in the history of the Howe Sound Men's Soccer League (HSMSL).
Regular season champions B&B Excavating clinched the league title on Saturday (April 13) but didn't really get a chance to celebrate because the team's opponents on the final day of round robin play Galileo failed to show up.
B&B head coach Ninder Bir said it felt good to repeat as the champs but said his squad is looking ahead to this weekend's Soccerfest tournament, where they will also try to repeat as men's open champions.
We've got a good bunch of guys here and a really nice core of players, he said. It feels good to win it again but now we've got to try and defend our title from last year at Soccerfest.
B&B has only lost one game all season long and dominated the playoffs outscoring its opponents 14-2 in the postseason. There was still HSMSL action on the Brennan Park fields on Saturday with Sikh Temple and Automind squaring off in the battle for second place.
The first half saw both teams trade chances and Temple narrowly missing on a penalty kick 25 minutes in. Automind's Griffin Dare opened the scoring at the 40 minute mark, with Russell Joel adding another just before the end of the first half.
Dare scored again in the second half, with Temple's Bruno Freitas replying on a penalty kick to pull within two goals but that's as close as Temple would good. Automind picked up the 3-1 victory and the second place finish is the team's best result ever.
We played really well today, said Automind head coach Dave Harrison. We had no subs today, which was why you saw me out there. But I thought we played as a team and kept at the whole game.
Harrison said that Dare and the other young talent he helped recruit has helped Automind continue to improve.
He [Dare] has been great all year for us, he said. He's a really strong player on and off the ball and can play almost anywhere on the field. As a team, we're always improving and the only team we lost to in the playoffs is the team that won it all B&B.
Harrison said Automind will be split up for Soccerfest, with some of the older players competing on a team called Dire Straits in the over 40 division. Some of the younger players on Automind are aligning with some local U18 talent to take on all competitors in the open men's division.
According to Jose Oreamuno of the 麻豆社国产Soccer Association, Soccerfest is once again completely sold out and the tournament will make use of the brand new turf field. It all gets underway on Saturday (April 20) with games going on from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The action continues on Sunday (April 21), with tournament final games and an awards ceremony at the end of the day.
There are 36 men's and 36 women's teams invading the fields at Brennan Park over the weekend and 麻豆社国产residents are encouraged to check out the soccer action. For more information on the tournament, visit www.squamishsoccerassociation.com.
