Perhaps fittingly on the weekend of the Academy Awards, the Vancouver Island Soccer League wrote a dream script for the Jackson Cup.
The semifinal results — Lakehill defeated two-time defending champion Nanaimo United 2-1 and Vic West beat Gorge FC 3-2 — sets up an intriguing final March 25 at Starlight Stadium.
“It is a classic match-up,” said VISL executive director Vince Greco.
Lakehill, despite being the dominant team in the regular season the last few years, has never won the Jackson Cup. In a cross-sport reference, meanwhile, Vic West is the Montreal Canadiens of the VISL and has won a record 22 Jackson Cup championships. But much like the Canadiens, their dynastic days are from the musty past and Vic West is after its first Jackson Cup championship since the Berlin Wall went down in 1989.
The Jackson Cup is the VISL’s version of the FA Cup in England and Copa del Rey in Spain and has been contested since 1915. Those who have chased the Jackson Cup include Canadian World Cup players such as George Pakos with Athletics, Jamie Lowery with Vic West and Ian Bridge with Lakehill.
But neither Bridge nor anybody else in a Lakehill jersey has lifted the Cup, despite that the club was formed in 1956 in Arsenal gear, with the only difference being the logo in the cannon is facing the opposite direction. The lack of Jackson Cups is something this potent current Gunners group is trying to rectify after knocking on the door the past few seasons. Lakehill is 15-1-2 in league play and has clinched a third-consecutive VISL regular-season crown.
The blockbuster roster features three of the top-four regular-season scorers in the VISL with veteran sniper Paddy Nelson leading the league again with 20 goals, former overseas pro player Blair Sturrock third with 15 goals and former University of Victoria Vikes striker Craig Gorman fourth with 13. Only Salem Almardy of Vic West, second with 16 goals, crashes this Gunners gallery.
Nelson has an additional three goals in Jackson Cup competition and Sturrock two and both scored in the come-from-behind semifinal victory over the double-defending champions from the Harbour City, with Sturrock striking late for the winner at 87 minutes to avenge Lakehill’s loss last year to Nanaimo United in the Cup playdowns.
Coach Mark Bhopal’s Lakehill club is again loaded with former UVic Vikes stars Gorman, Jack Hill, Wes Barrett, Tarnvir Bhandal and 2019 sa国际传媒 West MVP Isaac Koch. Throw in Nelson and Sturrock, and that’s a heady mix.
Coach Derek deGroot’s Vic West team, led offensively by Almardy and 10-goal scorer Kaelan Cooke, is second in the VISL regular season at 12-3-3. Most of its players weren’t even born the last time the Wests hoisted the Jackson Cup when Uncle Buck and The Little Mermaid were playing in movie theatres and Fine Young Cannibals and Milli Vanilli on the radio.
Vic West is the longest continually operating soccer club in sa国际传媒 and celebrated its 125th anniversary last year. The hardware has dried up from the glory years of the six Province Cup and four Canadian championships between 1976 and 1984 with the likes of stars Steve Forslund and John McGuire. But Vic West has re-arisen in recent seasons to again be a contender.
Almardy scored twice in the semifinal victory over Gorge FC with Marcus Campanile — the Scottish former Aberdeen U-20 midfielder and second overall pick in the 2019 CPL draft by Valour FC out of Cape Breton University — notching the other goal.
“Lakehill has been hot last few years, yet is amazingly going for its first Jackson Cup title. Vic West was a dynasty but has been dry the last couple of decades in terms of the Cup,” said Greco of the tantalizing match-up between the top-two seeds.
“And because of our random draw for the Jackson Cup, where anybody can play anybody in any round, to have the top-two teams survive and meet in the final is not always the case.”
CORNER KICKS: The 2023 men’s Province Cup draw was held over the weekend at the sa国际传媒 Sports Hall of Fame for the sa国际传媒 championship tournament with the top five VISL teams in the brackets. The Sweet Sixteen is April 1-2 with VISL regular-season champion Lakehill opening against the Vancouver Metro League fifth-place team to be decided, VISL No. 2 Vic West against Vancouver Metro No. 3 to be decided, and VISL third-place Gorge FC against the Vancouver Metro No. 2 seed to be decided. The Victoria Highlanders and Nanaimo United will go in as the No. 4 or No. 5 VISL seeds with that order to be decided based on the upcoming last game of the regular season.
Also in the Province Cup are the top teams from the Fraser Valley and Okanagan. The quarter-finals are April 15-16, semifinals April 22-23 and the final either April 29-30 at the Burnaby Lake West Sports Complex.
“For an Island team to be successful, you need the Sturrocks, Nelsons and Kochs to stay healthy and in-form and hot and you need some travel luck,” said Greco.
