The Sunshine Coast U-18 Storm are Coastal Cup silver medalists after losing 1-0 in a thrilling Coastal Cup final to Lusa Langley United last Saturday out in Maple Ridge.
The boys played a great game and created the better chances, including forcing a couple of fantastic saves by Langley’s keeper, while giving the Langley attackers no real chances on net at all.
However, with just three minutes remaining in the game, the Storm conceded an unlucky own-goal header that went up and over their keeper, giving him no chance whatsoever. That lone freak goal, sadly, was the only goal of the game.
The whole team can certainly hold their heads very high after such a great performance Saturday, while they also deserve to feel extremely proud of their entire season and incredible run to the final.
The boys’ season is not over yet, however, as they are off to provincials in July, an honour they earned by finishing second in the Coastal Cup. And their performance on Saturday showed exactly why they deserve to be one of only eight Division 1 teams going to provincials from the whole province.
It’s been 11 years since the last SCYSA team went to provincials and this will only be the second SCYSA boys’ team to have ever qualified for provincials.
That is to say, it is definitely not a regular occurrence for our tiny Sunshine Coast club, who constantly have to compete with the giant clubs of Vancouver, Coquitlam, Surrey, North Van, Richmond, Langley, etc.
The boys are not playing in some local regional league, like in the Kootenays or up North. No, they’re playing in a league that covers the whole Lower Mainland with a population of 2 million people. That is, the biggest league this side of Toronto.
The team knows they can go toe-to-toe with any team they face in July. It’ll be tough, of course, but they have the heart, hustle, skill and Coast spirit to take on anyone at provincials.
As they’ve proved time and time again, the U-18 Storm boys fear no one.
