The Bulkley Valley United Football Club U16 boys soccer team battled to a fourth place finish at the Slurpee Cup in Kamloops, B.C over the May Long Weekend.
Despite only practicing on fields for a couple of weeks, the boys played extremely well against much bigger southern competition whose seasons have been in full swing for a number of months.
In the first game, B.V United FC played Whitehorse United to a 0-0 draw. The Smithers team controlled most of the play and were unlucky not to win the game when a goal they scored was called back for offside.
In the second game, Smithers faced a tough test against a big club from Surrey, ranked 5th in the tournament. However, Smithers quickly found their game and won 4-0.
Game 3 brought the team's only loss, a hard-fought 2-1 defeat to number one-ranked Kelowna Lions Soccer Academy.
In their final game of the tournament, the Smithers club played the number two-ranked Kootenay Selects team and battled to a 2-2 draw.
A record of one win, two ties, and a loss, was good enough to finish fourth out of nine teams, but weren't far off from finishing in the top two spots.
Matched up against three of the tournament's top five-ranked teams, the boys competed extremely well and played some great soccer. Next up for the U16 team is the Northern Cup in June, where they will be attempting to qualify for their fourth consecutive Provincial Cup berth.
