A second-half goal from John Moesker lifted Turn-Key Controls to a 2-1 victory over Peters Tirecraft in a Vernon derby to open the North Okanagan Soccer League season Wednesday at MacDonald Park.
Both teams showed early-season rust and fitting new players into the rosters.
Turn-Key opened the scoring with Thomas Pool beating the keeper about midway through the first half.
Peters gained a corner kick, and with the wind in the Kenzel Aaarts-Roman’s favour, he curled the ball directly into the net, tying the game.
Both teams were more composed in the second half.
Defender Dave Mutan had a solid game on the Tirecraft backline.
A scheduled game between North Enderby Timber and Monashees was not played due to a lack of officials.
In youth soccer from the long weekend, Vernon Tolko United #2 U11 boys won all four matches, scoring five goals in every game, at the Lake Country Ice Breaker event.
United’s offence was led by Conrad Halloran with four goals, two Man of the Match awards and tournament MVP.
Halloran’s top-shelf header in the final match was the goal of the tournament as Vernon brushed back a strong Kelowna team to win 5 – 1.
Logan Andrew and Sam Levesque both scored four goals, and Andrew picked up Man of Match in Game 2. Tristan (Tristiano) Driedzic played an exceptional tournament on the left wing, beating players and creating scoring chances. He was awarded Man of the Match in Game 3, scoring two quality goals and three goals for the tournament.
Rylan Nadurak’s worked hard in every game, scoring three goals over the weekend. Thomas Nice scored the winner in the final game to make it 2 -1, beating the keeper with a hard shot just outside the box low on the right side. Nolan Stiven also scored in the finals with a breakaway shot that caught the keeper off guard.
Tolko’s defence was led by Jeffrey Curtis, Alessandro Durfeld and Adam Levesque with quality tackles and toughness. Keepers Ford Race and Luca Van de Vosse made some fantastic saves and distributed the ball very well. The defence allowed only eight goals over the weekend and the whole team worked very hard to deny the other teams space, opportunities and shots.