Nakusp Secondary senior boys soccer team qualify for provincials after winning zone final game 7 - 0

The Nakusp senior boys soccer team are off to the provincials following an impressive 7-0 win against Sparwood in the zone playoffs. The NSS side lead the play the whole game and defended every attempt by Sparwood to put one in their net.

The game was off to a quick start with Nakusp applying pressure and managing three attempts on net. Sparwood held off the Nakusp offense for only ten minutes, until Terryn Stenseth scored the opening goal for Nakusp.

The Nakusp offense was back at it again our minutes later when they converted at corner kick. Lucerne student Yuki Miwa scored the second goal for Nakusp after he recovered a fumble in front of the Sparwood net.

Four minutes after the second goal a Sparwood player drew a hand ball in the 18-yard box, giving Nakusp a penalty kick, which Miwa converted.

The NSS squad didn’t relent. They kept the ball out of their end and kept applying the pressure. Stenseth soon scored his second, giving Nakusp a huge lead only 25 minutes into the first half. Stenseth had another opportunity only a minute after his second goal but put the ball on the outside of the goal post.

When it seemed like the game was slowing down a little, Nakusp picked up the pace and Graeme Bekker put one into the back of the net another seven minutes after Stenseth’s second, giving Nakusp a 5-0 lead in the first half of the game. Sparwood had very few goal opportunities, one coming from a corner kick, but Nakusp goalie Nathan Wiebe easily handled the situation. He only touched the ball twice in the first half.

Before the end of the half Nakusp switched up players on the field and forward Mitchell Detta had many opportunities to widen the lead on Sparwood but wasn’t able to finish.

“Playing Sparwood in the zone playoff was a bit of a gamble as we had no idea what type of team they had,” says NSS coach Rod Morrison. “As it turned out, they hadn’t played very many games and their team was a little bit inexperienced and the outcome wasn’t in doubt after the first few minutes of the game.”

In the second half play slowed down, with Nakusp still putting the pressure on. Nakusp started peppering the goalie with shots which came from Bekker, Balske, Detta, Sean Harper and Bryce McGinnis.

Thirty minutes into the second half, Nakusp scored again, but it was ruled offside as Harper passed to Stenseth behind the Sparwood defence.

Five minutes after that ruling, Harper made a strong shot from just inside the 18-yard line to extend Nakusp’s lead to 6-0.

Nakusp changed their goalie in the last minutes of the game, taking out Wiebe and putting in Garret Bowman in. Wiebe had his chance to play forward in the dying minutes of the game, having a few chances, but finishing on none. With one minute left of play, Kris James moved from his defence position, trading with Miwa on forward, and placed another in the back of the net, making the final score 7-0.

Good, strong passing and play-making were attributes of the entire team, which managed to keep the ball out of their end for most of the game.

“The provincials will be extremely competitive this year. There are 52 “A” tier schools in the province and all of the zones have quality teams, so there won’t be any easy games,” says Morrison. “This year the tournament has expanded to 16 teams so you have to win five in a row to win the provincials.”

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