Head coach Tyler Hughes handed the reins of Cowichan United to assistant Ryan Fusick for last Sunday’s U21 soccer match against Lakehill in Saanich. The game ended in a 4-1 win for Lakehill, but by all accounts, Cowichan was not outplayed, especially in the early going.
“From the sounds of it, it was closer than the score indicates,” Hughes said.
It was only by chance that Cowichan didn’t open the scoring.
“Apparently, we came out quite strong at the start and created some chances, we high-pressed the other team and caused a lot of problems for them,” Hughes said. “But we couldn’t get the first goal.”
Lakehill got into the game and ended up scoring first off a corner kick — not an uncommon scenario for United this season.
“We’ve let in a lot of goals off set pieces this year,” Hughes noted. “It’s not something we’ve worked on a lot, but we’ll focus in that a bit this week, try and get a bit more organized and see if we can remedy that problem.”
Michael Fusick scored for Cowichan as the teams traded goals over the remainder of the first half, and Lakehill held a 2-1 advantage at the break. The hosts scored another two in the second half.
With one win, three draws and five losses, Cowichan sits last in the U21 league, but the team isn’t out of contention.
“We haven’t really been getting results lately, but we’re not overly worried about it at this point,” Hughes said. “In parts of the game, we’re starting to play quite well, but it has taken a bit longer than we thought. It’s a process, and we’re starting to see some improvement here.”
Cowichan will look for their first win since Sept. 30 when they host Castaways FC at the Sherman Road turf this Sunday at 2:15 p.m. The teams tied 1-1 when they met in Victoria on Oct. 14.
“Every game, we’ve played well,” Hughes said. “In some, we’ve performed better than others and deserved better results. We haven’t been outclassed by any means.”