It was a stormy weekend for the Mini Gobbler Soccer Tournament at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex on Oct. 10 and 11. The U11 Coastal Storm FC boys were looking forward to this soccer buffet like nobody’s business.
They were exploding with potential and energy. With four different games, four different teams, none of them they had faced before, the excitement was palpable.
Game 1 on Saturday morning, their first opponents were the Wesburn Dynamo from Burnaby. The team was full tilt from the whistle, and the Dynamo could do nothing but play catch up.
Henry Rose blurred the middle of the field like it was his own backyard. The passing game started right away with coordinated attacks from Max Joe and Taiyo Blackwell, and beautiful placement from talented mid-fielder Marshall Curtiss made short work of any hope the Dynamo had of getting to our net.
Chris Coates proved a sight to be seen in the backfield, never letting up on the attacks and pushing the ball up whenever it came his way. Ben Walker began his high energy style of play and set the tone for the Dynamo to play defensively for most of the rest of the game. Sasha Kliewer put his cleats to good use and set his astounding pace to full throttle, distracting the Dynamo like they were stuck in the mud.
The Storm was on fire this cloudy morning and the fans were in awe.
Max made a nice power blast into the back of the net right in front of his Dad, literally ten feet from the net, and we were on the board.
Ben Walker made time to sink this ship with his patented cannon blast, sealing our first game 2-0 and announcing to the ten field mega complex in Burnaby that a Storm had arrived.
Game 2, on that same afternoon, saw the Storm face off against the Port Moody Euro Pro.
Samuel Uwa needed no introductions as he spread out far and wide looking for any opportunity to make his presence known, with lightning speed finally putting the Storm on the board with a sweet slam right where only the net could stop it, 1-0.
The Euro Pro were tenacious and passed like a well-oiled machine, giving our boys the chance to put their new-found coordination to good use on the pitch.
Jack Marshall and Rory Scott gave it their all showing how important a good defense is to a winning team, diffusing attack after attack with hard earned sweat equity.
Ben Walker sweetened the pot with another from his comfortable outside perch to make it 2-0. Quickly the Euro Pro capitalized on some inattentive post-goal slop and put them within range at 2-1.
Game 3 the next day found the boys playing another Wesburn team, the Revolution. Their energy looked good from the get go. Taiyo, Ben, Chris and Henry were in charge in the middle this morning, which quickly resulted in Ben slotting it in front of the net giving Taiyo the opening inspiration shot, all in the first minute of the game, 1-0.
Max and Jack were dynamic in the backfield, clearing the ball and giving the team the needed confidence to push forward. The Storm were calling plays to each other, faking shots and blasting away, drawing defenders away to create open space for a teammate and using space for sheer dominance.
Samuel made some stellar crosses for more opportunities, and slotted one in making it 3-0. Ocean positioned himself exactly where he needed to be several times, and Taiyo made the effortless gentle touch to make it a clean 4-0.
A melee in front of the Storm net saw a loose ball sneak past our goal, giving Revolution one for posterity, 4-1. After missing his ferry and showing up late to the second half, a buzzing Gage slid right into place and put in a great goal within a few minutes on the field, to give the 5-1 final score.
Game 4 saw us face the Port Coquitlam Galaxy in the final game of the tournament. Galaxy pounced with speed and accuracy, passing perfectly into breakaways we seemed powerless to control, giving an early 0-1 lead to the Galaxy.
The sky came crashing down when a brilliant corner by Poco saw their lead striker slot the ball into our net with the back of his heel. The boys were deflated to say the least, and it was only the half. Where were the warriors of the Coast?
This was it, the last half of the tournament: it was make or break time. They rose from the ashes like marvellous ten-year-old gods to redeem themselves in the last 25 minutes of a highly-charged game.
The midfield and backfield of Rory, Jack, Marshall, Ocean and Sasha kept the ball past half, allowing for brilliant moves from Ben Walker – the kid awoke a demon. He single-handedly swirled Poco around his cleats and slotted a cherry into the net, turning the tide in our favour, 1-3.
The entire team kept up the pace. Henry and Samuel pushed hard, making sure Poco had little chance to increase the divide. Ben hit again in the confusion to make it a salvageable 2-3; clearly he had decided we were not going gentle into that good night.
Two wasn’t enough to get the win and no one else was able to push it past a great team in Poco, so he blurred the space time continuum and answered the call, tying the game 3-3 with maybe 30 seconds to spare.
The Storm tied exactly point for point for first place with the Poco team they had just played, a truly glorious finale to a weekend of amazing soccer.
