A group of select players from the Williams Lake men’s soccer league had a successful weekend in North West B.C. The lakecity squad placed runners up out of seven teams at the Smithers Invitational Soccer Tournament.
Williams Lake opened the tournament Saturday morning with a convincing win over Kispiox 8-0 and then defeated Terrace 6-0 in their second contest to set up a semi final date with hosts Smithers on the Saturday night.
Smithers had won several tournaments this summer throughout the North West circuit and feature a phenomenal team which includes the three Imhof brothers who all played professionally in Switzerland.
The oldest, Daniel, played for Vfl Bochum in the German Bundesliga and for the Canadian National Team, before retiring professionally in 2012 and returning to Smithers.
During the match Smithers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead and carried much of the play for the opening 20 minutes.
Williams Lake was able to get back into the contest and tied the game 1-1 just before half time on a goal from Ethan Bhangu.
The second half was very tightly contested but Williams Lake scored with just one minute left in the game after Luke Moger was fouled inside the penalty area and Sean Glanville scored on the ensuing penalty shot to earn a 2-1 victory.
The win put Williams Lake directly into Sunday’s final and Smithers had to drop down to the bottom side of the draw and play an extra game.
“Out of our 14 players, 12 were from our local men’s league and for many of them it was their first competitive tournament experience,” said Moger. “To beat a team the calibre of Smithers felt great.”
In Sunday’s final it was a re-match with Smithers. Williams Lake came out really flat and were down 2-0 after the first 10 minutes. The lakecity created some quality scoring chances but couldn’t finish around the net and ended up falling 2-0.
Williams Lake won $1,000 as their runners up prize money.