It has been 18 months since the team has touched the field and with the first half of the season completed, here is an in-depth look at how it went.
Team huddle at halftime vs. SFU
With a new year comes a new team and this year has been no exception. With a majority of the team being first-year students, the returning players had to pave the way for the incoming players and the team had a lot of work to do before the first game of the season.
The first game of the season was not the outcome the team wanted, losing 7-2 to Vancouver to open up the CWFLL season. The boys were rusty, for some, it had been almost a year since they touched the field, and for others, there was an adjustment from playing against youth to men. This game was the stepping stone for the improvement of the team and things could only get better from here.
The Birds fell 9-3 to the Adanacs the following week but would bounce back to beat Abbotsford 10-8 courtesy of returning players Kurtis Shum, Lorenzo Malana, Kyle Olsen, Cameron Bailey, Robbie De Guzman, and Aydan Johnson playing a huge leadership role in transitioning the first years to playing in the CWFLL compared to high school.
The next five games were a learning experience going 0-4-1 in the next league games. With a short bench, our legs could not keep up for the entire sixty minutes. Wedged in between our league games was an exhibition game against SFU. This was a test to see where our skills would stack up against an established collegiate team. Unfortunately, the team lost 7-4 but it was arguably our best game yet.
With the final 2 regular-season games before the Christmas break, the team wanted to end on a winning streak. And they did, by first beating Vancouver 11-5. This game compared to the first game of the year was night and day by scoring 7 goals in the first quarter, and the team only held on from there getting our second win of the season. Then came a rematch against the Adanacs where the team won 12-9. Same as the Vancouver game, the team was ahead early and kept it that way, with an impressive showing at the “X” from Nolan Michelberger going almost 80% on faceoff wins. The offense was firing on all cylinders and the defense locked down the opposing team’s offense.
Current Points Leader Kurtis Shum
Your points leader is currently Kurtis Shum with 12 goals and 17 points in 10 games followed closely behind by Nicolaas Fernandes with 13 goals and 14 points in 9 games. First-year goaltender Reed Watson has been the backbone of our defense. The Birds look to keep their win streak alive when the season starts up again in early 2022.
*This blog post is brought to you by our sponsor for this season, Stong’s market. Stong’s market is a grocery store that prides themselves on supporting local BC businesses and smaller companies where they can get their foot into the food industry with the help of Stong’s. Visit https://stongs.com/ for more information.
Stong’s Market