The Marine Harvest U14 Boys Riptide travelled to Vancouver on Saturday, April 30 to compete for the Gold medal at the Coastal “A” Cup final against Surrey Football club.
Riptide boys came out of the gates with force and control. A string of passes presented sticker Fergus Hall a window to move the ball forward to Jerod Timothy. Jerod manoeuvred through two Surrey defenders and made a nice pass across the front of the goal for Cameron Bell who tapped the ball into the Surrey net.
The physical intensity of the Surrey players kicked into high gear after that. Surrey turned up the attacking pressure which resulted in a point in their favour to tie up the game at the half. However, Riptide’s counterattack was excellent which led to abundant scoring opportunities throughout the match. This allowed Riptide to take back the lead with five minutes left in regulation time, almost sealing the deal. In the dying minutes of the second half, Surrey’s relentless determination paid off, managing to score and tie up the game once again.
In overtime, the play continued to move like a fast paced pendulum with both goalies making outstanding saves. Surrey was the first to find the back of the net to lead with a score of 3-2.
Riptide fought hard to recover and the passion and perseverance was awarded with a goal in the last couple minutes of overtime. Thunderous cheers exploded from the Riptide players and fans, soon to be replaced by exasperated sighs and comments of disbelief when the goal was not counted as the play was called off side, resulting in Surrey FC winning the match.
Coach Steve Hall said; “the boys had every chance to win the game and the whole team was complimented by the head referee of the tournament on how classy we were in our behaviours and play.”