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Four Surrey teams crack top eight in high school soccer provincials

Panorama Ridge finished second overall in the tournament
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The L.A. Matheson senior boys soccer team. (Submitted photo)

It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about boys or girls. Surrey’s soccer dominance is evident everywhere.

Last month, multiple Surrey players were given national recognition for their soccer brilliance.

The city is also showing its dominance at the high school level as well.

B.C. AAA soccer provincials kicked off on Thursday in Burnaby, with Panorama Ridge, Fleetwood Park, L.A. Matheson and Enver Creek all representing our city in the round of 16.

All teams boosted the city’s reputation for soccer even further by grabbing four of the top eight spots in the tournament.

Panorama Ridge and L.A. Matheson ended up in an intense battle on Friday, one that would decide who would face off against perennial soccer powerhouse, Dr. Charles Best Secondary, in the final.

It was Panorama Ridge who earned their place in the final with a 3-0 victory over L.A. Matheson.

In the final however, Dr. Charles Best retained their dominance, beating Panorama Ridge 2-1.

L.A. Matheson ended up playing for third place, but they bowed out 2-0 to Reynolds Secondary from Victoria.

After their Cinderella season, perhaps it was fitting that L.A. Matheson was awarded the Fair Play award after the provincials wrapped up. The award was handed out by the referees to the team that best exemplifies sportsmanship on the field.

Surrey ended up with three teams in the top five after Fleetwood Park ended up fifth overall. They beat 3-2 Oak Bay Secondary on penalty kicks in a thrilling comeback win.

“We were down 2-0 at half-time,” said Uppal. “Our guys could have packed it up at that point, but they battled back and played hard.

Fleetwood Park goalie Karndeep Sahota was also named the tournament’s best keeper.

The format of the tournament put Fleetwood Park in a tough division with the defending champions from Reynolds Secondary. After tieing them in the round robin, Reynolds beat them in their division based on goal differential.

That result meant that Fleetwood Park could finish no higher than fifth overall. Uppal was thrilled with his team’s overall performance over the weekend.

“Man, did our boys compete,” said Uppal. “At the end of the day, we can’t fault ourselves [for the result]. We did everything right out there.”

It was a solid performance from Fleetwood Park across the entire soccer season. They lost one of only 18 games the senior boys played.

“It’s the best team that we’ve had from the boys’ side, absolutely,” said Uppal.

Not to be forgotten was Enver Creek, who finished eighth overall after losing to Kitsilano 3-1 in the game for seventh overall.



trevor.beggs@surreynowleader.com

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