Cermaq City Wave FC secured another important victory on the road this past week with a 2-1 win over a resilient Saanich Fusion “Bayside Tigers.”
The River side took a strong squad to Victoria and fully understood the importance of the game. Indeed they could have been a goal up after two minutes.
An Indirect Free kick was awarded to Cermaq after a Bayside Tigers defender passed the ball back to the keeper who picked it up. In doing so a foul occurred and a free kick was awarded.
The Cermaq forwards took the kick quickly but the first shot was saved by the keeper and the second was knocked over the cross bar from the top of the six yard area.
Cermaq continued to press and were causing problems for the home defence whenever they got the ball forward. Bayside showed some pace going forward and on one such foray Marcus Degroot of Bayside was to score the opener with an excellent shot from 20 yards out which took keeper Beau Belle-Oudry by surprise.
Despite a strong response from Cermaq Bayside again found some space at the top of the 18 yard area and another excellent shot needed a fine save from Belle-Oudry.
Overall Cermaq played some attractive, fast paced, attacking soccer but the finish was lacking. Finally after 41 minutes they got the reward their efforts warranted when Taylor Arbour delicately chipped the Bayside keeper to tie the game.
The second half saw an assault on the Bayside goal. A mix of missed opportunities, strong defending and outstanding keeping kept the scores level.
It was to take a superb individual effort by Wyatt Bryce to secure the victory.
Bryce went on a dazzling run evading three defenders before beating the keeper with an excellent finish.
The result keeps the local team in first place in the VISL Division 2. This weekend the Cermaq Wave return to CR where they host a young and fast Nanaimo side at 2pm at Willow Point.