This past weekend was one of the most exciting weekends of the year to this point.
The weekend featured 6 semi final Cup games, and all had their share of excitement.
Starting off with the most senior of Cups – The Sir john Jackson Cup.
Here is how the final bracket looks like after the weekend:
The first semi on Friday was close till just after halftime, then Bays United ended up finishing off Gorge by score of 5-1
The lone goal scorer for the defending champion Gorge FC team was Mike Moon.
Goal scorers for Bays were Craig Robertson, Justin Donaldson, Jordan Roy, and Patrick Nelson with 2.
The second semi was a much closer affair as the Cinderella Comox Valley United team battled but lost to a strong Westcastle team.
Score was 1-0 in favor of the young guns.
Goal was scored by Alec-Michael Petrizzi and earning the shutout was Sachdev Grewal.
A solid effort by both teams that offered lots of excitement till the final whistle!
Westcastle advance to their first Jackson Cup Final in team history as the favorite, while Bays qualify for the event that they won back in 2013.
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The George Pearkes Chalenge Cup semi finals were also on the card for the weekend.
The first one on Friday featured an inter-club battle as Gorge Us-Guys took out their club mates from the other side of the division – final score of 3-1.
Scoring in a losing effort was Paul Grieve.
Goals from Us-Guys were scored by Tyler Ostapovich, Jordan French, and John Bakowski.
The second semi final at Westhills was a thriller of a game.
It had Hellas defeat Campbell River by the score of 1-0.
The lone goal of the game came from Elliot Mitrou. Earning the shutout, and a busy night it was, Jesse Kliman.
An excellent match that featured some good old fashioned soccer – no shortage of solid tackles and effort all the way through.
So this is what the George Pearkes Challenge Cup Final looks like; Gorge Us-Guys vs Hellas
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Our final stop of the semi final weekend was the Tony Grover Masters Cup for guys 35 years and up.
It started out with the Game Of The Week – the rubber match (3rd game) between host UVic Alumni and defending champion Cowichan 49ers.
Cowichan ended up winning the game by score of 3-0.
Was an interesting game to follow along as Cowichan started out like gang busters and could have scored 3 goals in the first 10 minutes.
They came away empty handed, and then UVic could have easily scored a couple in the next 20 minutes. Halftime came, 0-0.
First goal was scored at 68′ mark by Tyler Hughes. As the game progressed and UVic were pushing for the equalizer, Neall Rowlings slotted 2 goals to earn Man of the Match honors.
Recording the shutout was Chris Muller
The other semi final had gorge FC hosting long time VISL squad Vic West.
The game also ended with a 3-0 result.
Gorge goal scorers were Dylan McMicking and Francesco Cortini with 2.
Earning the shutout was Pat Wiebe.
This sets up a rematch as the same 2 teams were in the Final last year.
A fabulous weekend of soccer. great community amateur soccer that will carry on to many work place discussions, or on to family vacations where some people have been and/or are headed to.
Cup weekend will take 1 week of, then all finals will take place on Saturday & Sunday March 30 & 31 at Royal Athletic Park.