Final Four is a term reserved mostly for basketball in the month of March.
But the Vancouver Island Soccer League will borrow it tonight as the race for the 103rd Jackson Cup is down to the semifinals.
All teams in the VISL First and Second Divisions began in the hunt. There were some close calls but no giant killers emerged this year. Four of the top-five seeds made it to the Final Four, with only defending champion and third-seed Nanaimo United faltering. That鈥檚 quite something considering the Jackson Cup draw, designed on the model of the FA Cup draw, is completely random.
Second-seed Vic West will play fourth-seed Lakehill tonight at 6:30 p.m. on Field No. 3 on the University of Victoria campus, while top-seed Cowichan FC meets fifth-seed Gorge FC at 7 at Sherman Road in Duncan.
Cowichan FC is looking to make its eighth championship-game appearance in the past nine years and win a sixth Jackson Cup title in that span. They were denied in the championship game last year by a Nanaimo United side that won its first Jackson Cup since 1999. Cowichan FC gained a measure of revenge by ousting Nanaimo United 1-0 in the quarter-finals this year.
Second-seed Vic West, whose legacy includes six Province Cup titles between 1976 and 1984, is after its first Jackson Cup since The Karate Kid ruled on the big screen and Miami Vice on the small screen.
Gorge FC is looking to book a return trip to the glory days in which the club won four Province Cup titles between 2001 and 2010.
The Jackson Cup final is on Sunday, March 25, at 2:30 p.m. at Royal Athletic Park.
Meanwhile, the Province Cup draw is April 3, leading to the sa国际传媒 championship game May 12 on the Lower Mainland.
