Surrey United U15 Premier - Provincial Premier Cup Champions
Surrey United opened their inaugural EA Sports BC Soccer Premier League campaign in February with a pre-season trip to Phoenix, Arizona to compete in the FC Del Sol President's Day Tournament. The team underperformed in a lot of areas and their lack of training, combined with inexperience playing together, showed against top level teams that were in mid-season form. The premier league season opener came quick on the heels of the Phoenix trip and, still a bit rattled, United served up a very flat performance drawing nil-nil with Fusion FC.
The boys picked up a couple solid wins against Mountain United (3-1) and Thompson Okanagan FC (2-0) in early March before participating Whitecaps College Showcase during spring break. Surrey United played a fantastic game against the Whitecaps FC Residency at the showcase; they ultimately fell 2-1 to the 'Caps but looked very strong in the performance. The month of March ended with a game against Surrey rivals South Fraser FC; United dismantled them 6-0 which maintained an undefeated record through the first month of the league.
Early April saw Surrey United put together one of their more notable performances of the year, again against the Whitecaps FC Residency squad. Although just an exhibition match, United fought hard and had to come from behind to earn a 3-2 win; the result seemed to spur the team to new heights in the month of April. Although the squad initially stumbled drawing 2-2 against perennial rivals Coquitlam Metro Ford, the Surrey boys followed that result with a pair of wins. The first, away to Thompson Okanagan FC (3-0) and the second, a 4-0 home win against a strong Vancouver Island Wave squad to close out the month of April, ...still undefeated in the league.
The month of May opened in much the same way as April, with a game against Coquitlam Metro Ford. This time United truly faltered, falling 1-0. With the pressure of maintaining an undefeated record seemingly off their shoulders, Surrey United rattled off five straight wins, four of them on the road. The fifth game in the streak was another season highlight. The boys were down 4-1 twenty five minutes into the match, yet clawed their way back to a 5-4 win. The result clinched the premier league title for United with one game remaining on the schedule against second place Fusion FC, who could not catch United even with a win. Surrey dropped the final game 2-1, which had no effect on the standings, but it left United winless in three games against Fusion FC.
The Provincial Cup semi-finals had League Champions, Surrey United, defeating fourth place Vancouver Island Wave (2-0) and second place, Fusion FC defeating third place Coquitlam Metro Ford (4-3). This staged a Provincial Premier Cup final for Surrey United against a Fusion FC squad that they had yet to defeat. The final was a very tough affair with Fusion playing a very high pressure and direct style of play that limited United's typical possession game. The Surrey boys got on the board early on a great strike off a rebound from 20 yards out to take a 1-0 lead. On the back of some excellent goalkeeping and strong team defensive play, one goal was all they would need to claim the title of Provincial Champions.
With team success, also comes a lot of individual accomplishments and Surrey United had a number. Cole Basarich was named MVP of the Provincial Cup Final and Brendan Shaw was named team MVP and is up for Surrey United Player of the Year. Five players from last year's squad have moved on the Whitecaps FC Residency (Jeevin Kang, Nikhil Reddy, Zach Verhoven, Liam Fraser and Matteo Bordignon). Nine players were identified for Provincial Teams or National Training Centre camps (Aman Thind, Brendan Shaw, Bradley Heffey, Will Grayson, Manraj Bains, Nestor Valencia, Eric de Graaf, Kerman Pannu and Russell Coffin), seven of those players were selected to the BC U15 Provincial Team. Finally six players joined the Surrey Guildford United Traveling Team in early July (Cole Basarich, Darren Rulofs, Parker Denton, Manraj Bains, Marcus Thavonesouk and Liam Morrison) and helped them to defend their title at the Sounders FC Cup, beating the BC U14 Provincial Team 1-0 in the tournament final.
Surrey United begin competition phase two of the league on September 15th, away to Thompson Okanagan FC and will begin pre-season training on August 20th.
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