United U14 boys maintain mastery of TOYSL opponents

The Kelowna United U14 (West) boys continued their domination of Thompson-Okanagan Youth Soccer League opponents in Week 4 with a 5-0 win over the visiting Penticton Pinnacles.

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Attacking midfielder, Chris West, scored two goals — one on a penalty kick — as United improved to 4-0 with their third shutout of the 2016 season at Mission Sportsfields.

Fellow midfielders, Gavin Lawlor and Ethan Kersche, added a goal apiece in the lopsided win that saw United control the ball for about 75 per cent of the game. Forward Adam Love rounded out the scoring for KU, while Brennan Martin posted the whitewash in goal.

BOYS

Kelowna United Warriors U13 (2) Kelowna United Saints U13 (0)

A solid team effort saw the Warriors score both their goals in the second half and the two Zachs — Shields and Strocen — combine for the shutout.

Ethan Delicato scored the winning goal in the second half with a strong corner shot that curved high into the far corner of the Saints goal. Aidan Bell added the insurance marker on a free kick.

Despite a never-say-die effort by the Saints, they couldn’t beat Shields or Strocen in the Warriors’ net.

Kelowna United Legends U12 (2) Vernon S U12 (3)

Taking a 2-1 lead in the first half on goals by Garin Milo and Brett Chipchase, the Legends couldn’t hold on against a stellar Vernon team.

Kelowna United Legends U12 (3) Shuswap D U12 (2)

A second game of the day saw the Legends overcome an early one-goal deficit to take a 2-1 lead by the half on goals by Matteo Bigattini and Soren Crumb.

Milo scored what would stand up as the winner in the second half, converting a pass from Crumb.

Kelowna United Fire U11 (6) Vernon W U11 (0)

Aggressive offence and solid defence by Chey Ragoonaden, Ben Herbert and Pavan Punia led to a 4-0 first-half lead by the Fire.

Bronson Kreitz opened the scoring for United off a rebound on a shot by Lee Marten, while Ragoonaden made it 2-0 off a nifty pass from Pavan.

Mateo Trozzo put away a long rebound for the third Kelowna goal, while Ragoonaden got the fourth with a long strike from in front of the net.

The Fire maintained control in the second half, with Herbert scoring the fifth goal with a nice individual effort up the left side. David Mulleny rounded out the scoring after being set up Nash Semeniuk, again on the left side of the pitch.

Kelowna United Fire U11 (4) Kamloops D U11 (4)

The Fire’s afternoon game against Kamloops was a spirited affair, with both teams producing offensive sequences.

Falling behind 2-0 early on, despite some good scoring opportunities, United finally broke through for a goal by Herbert, who put away a rebound on a long shot by Alex Dye. It was 2-1 at the break.

Ragoonaden got things going offensively for the Fire early in the second half with a goal off a feed from Marten at midfield.

While Kamloops responded to take the lead again, Ragoonaden found the bottom right corner of the net after a long up-field pass from Semeniuk.

A defensive giveaway led to the fourth Kamloops goal, but KU tied it late in the game when Ragoonaden completed his hat trick on a breakaway set up by Herbert.

GIRLS

Kelowna United U18 (3) Shuswap (0)

United scored early and late in the first half on the way to the shutout in Salmon Arm.

Rachel Davis directed a pass from Sophie Simair over the Shuswap goalie’s head just two minutes into the match, while Brooke Weremy volleyed the ball passed by Brianna Tataryn into the net for a 2-0 lead at the break.

Fiona Reha set up Holly deHaas for the third United goal.

Shuswap applied desperate pressure in the second half, with Regan Medley having to tap one shot over the crossbar to preserve the shutout started by fellow netminder, Allison Keber, in the first half.

Kelowna United Smith U14 (1) Kamloops Blaze U14G (3)

Goaltender Taysha Clark made some heroic saves early to give her teammates the opportunity to take the lead on a goal by Layla Joseph, who blasted a direct free kick over the Kamloops keeper.

Kamloops came back and tied the game just before the half on a corner kick that Kelowna couldn’t clear to make it 1-1.

United created a couple of breakaway opportunities in the second half, but were unable to capitalize, allowing Kamloops to score twice in the second half.

Kelowna United (J) U14 (3) Vernon U14G (1)

In the first meeting of the season between the two teams that battled for the 2015 season’s top spot in the TOYSL 2002 girls division, both came out with plenty of energy and created several scoring chances.

Kelowna scored first with a goal 15 minutes into the first half from Kassidy Day after the team had set up an attack through the midfield into Vernon’s end.

Vernon was employing a high-pressure, counter-attacking style of play and found success with a goal just before the first half ended.

In the second half, Kelowna continued to play a possession game and after another nice build-up, United forward, Brenna Laidlaw, headed the ball past the Vernon keeper to give Kelowna the lead.

A few minutes later, Kelowna was pressing again, feeding the ball wide to Jaxon Slaney who sent a nice cross in front of the Vernon keeper. It deflected off of a Vernon player into the goal to make the score to 3-1.

Vernon pressed to get the goals back, sending several long balls in an attempt to create opportunities and test the Kelowna back line.

In the end, most of the attempts to break through were shut down, and Kelowna keeper, Yan Liang, rose to the challenge when needed with some strong saves to keep the score at 3-1 for the Kelowna win.

Kelowna United Lightning U12 (4) Kamloops U12W (5)

An evenly matched game in Salmon Arm saw Anna Hopley and Hianano Hennessy score for United in the first half, finishing passes from Kaydee Copithorne and Hopley respectively.

Shae Taylor scored back-to-back goals in the second half with assists from Copithorne and Teghan McCormick, but Kamloops replied late with the winning goal.

Kelowna United Lightning U12 (3) Kamloops U12L (2)

McCormick’s goal with three minutes left in the first half stood up as the winner in the Lightning’s second game against a Kamloops opponent.

Taylor scored twice earlier in the opening frame. She found the net directly off a corner kick on her first goal and took advantage of a perfect pass from Copithorne for her second.

Makenna Abbey had an outstanding game to earn the netminding win.

Kelowna United Predators U12 (1) Kamloops U12L (0)

Olivia Lawrie scored the only goal of the game in the second half and Taylor Bay secured her fourth shutout of the season for the Predators in the TOYSL game against Kamloops played at Little Mountain in the Shuswap.

Lawrie started the scoring play with a corner kick and followed it up to notch the winner during a scramble in front of the Kamloops net.

Sophie Dyck and Alexa Grochowich anchored the Predators’ defence, while Maddie Hicks and Tristan Woodroff, with a shot off the post, led the KU offence in the late going.

Kelowna United Predators U12 (5) Vernon U12S (0)

The Predators scored four unanswered goals in the second half to clinch their fifth win of the season.

Hannah Lommer opened the scoring with United’s lone goal in the first half, deflecting a shot off the far post and into the net.

What might have been the turning the point in the game came late in the opening frame as keeper Bay made a huge save that went off her right hand and hit the post to keep Vernon from scoring.

Bay’s teammates gathered momentum in the second, with Kate Rattee burying two straight goals early on, the first off a rebound of a shot by Lawrie.

Woodroff put the Preds up by four less than five minutes later, while she closed out the scoring with her second of the game.

Kelowna United Strikers U11 (3) Kamloops U11H (0)

Rhiannon Maynes scored the winning goal 25 minutes into the game and goalkeeper Lauren Gubbels was outstanding in goal as the Strikers posted their first TOYSL victory of the season.

Mykayla Zukowski’s corner kick led to a Kamloops own-goal early in the second half to put KU up by two, while Maynes closed out the scoring off a pass from Jacelynn Stone.

Contributing significantly to Gubbels’ shutout was the solid defensive play of Rylee Gordon, Sophia Bigattini, Demetra Denney, Emma Geddes, Isabella Bigattini and Jada Burden.

Kelowna United Strikers U11 (2) Kamloops U11S (1)

The Strikers scored both their goals in the first half and received shutout goaltending from Geddes en route to the one-goal victory.

Zukowski set up the first goal 10 minutes into the game with a corner kick that Maynes put into the back of the net. Maynes notched the winner five minutes later.

Kamloops came on strong in the second half, putting constant pressure on the Strikers’ defence, but while they did cut the Kelowna lead in half, they couldn’t get a second goal past keeper Isabella Bigattini.

Kelowna United Flames U11 (0) Kamloops U11 (1)

The host Kamloops team dominated the first 15 minutes and scored the only goal of the game in that span.

United responded to the challenge in the second half and applied plenty of pressure, but couldn’t get the equalizer.

Kelowna United Flames U11 (2) Vernon U11 (1)

Sophia Depieri scored the winning goal in the second half to complete a United comeback.

The Flames fell behind 1-0 early on a Vernon corner kick, but Sarah Donnick’s late first-half goal set up Depieri’s heroics.

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