In a gritty match on North Island Secondary School’s home turf in Port McNeill last Thursday, Port Hardy grabbed a 3 to 0 win.
Hardy scored just minutes into the first half, as Isaac Williams’ shot squirted into McNeill’s goal, but McNeill hung tough on defence for the remainder of the period, even as they failed to make progress on offence. Lone strikers ventured upfield, but, without much passing, always lost the ball back to Hardy.
“We’re playing a good game,” said Port Hardy Captain Lyam Donetz, who is in Grade 11. “Good passing,” Donetz added.
Tyrone Wallace slammed the ball home on a rebound midway through the second half, after the ball hopped out of the goalie’s arms, making it 2 to 0.
That’s around when a couple of McNeill players started lowering their shoulders, and the game got chippy. The referee took McNeill’s coach Casey Mork aside after the game to tell him to tell his players that, even if they had the ball, they couldn’t just charge into their defenders.
“They were just losing and getting a little hardheaded,” Mork said. “We looked like a bunch of children out there.”
Isaac Williams scored again with just a couple minutes left, off a perfect pass up the field from Tyrone Wallace, to seal the game.