Eight teams will be vying for two provincial berths as the Island triple-A senior boys鈥� soccer championship begins today at Oak Bay High and Braefoot fields.
The Reynolds Roadrunners, the South鈥檚 No. 1 seed, will form Pool B along with Nanaimo District (North 2), Mount Douglas Rams (South 3) and Spectrum Thunder (South 5). The North鈥檚 No. 1, Dover Bay, is situated in Pool A with the Oak Bay Bays (South 2), Cowichan Thunderbirds (North 3) and Claremont Spartans (South 4).
Reynolds enters the tournament as one of the favourites, courtesy of a 6-0-2 regular-season record. The Roadrunners also recently drubbed Mount Douglas 7-1 in Colonist Cup quarter-final play.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great warm-up going into Islands and the Colonist Cup semifinals,鈥� coach J.J. Atterbury said after that win.
Reynolds tackles Spectrum in the tournament opener at 8:45 a.m. at Oak Bay High followed by a 10:15 a.m. matchup between Oak Bay and Cowichan; at 1:30 p.m. Reynolds meets Mount Douglas; and in a 3:15 p.m. start it鈥檚 Oak Bay and Claremont.
Over at Braefoot, Nanaimo District clashes with Mount Douglas at 9 a.m.; followed by Dover Bay and Claremont at 11 a.m.; Spectrum and Nanaimo District at 1 p.m.; and Dover Bay vs. Cowichan at 3 p.m. before teams move into Day 2 play on Thursday.
The championship game between the two top pool teams will go at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Oak Bay with the bronze-medal game set for 2:30 p.m. at Braefoot.
鈥淚t comes down to whoever wins our pool. Pool play is so important. We have to not give up goals and play solid defence. We鈥檝e struggled to score goals so hopefully we can get hot at the right time,鈥� Bays coach Richard Fast said of his team鈥檚 chances of securing one of two berths.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got some nice players, but we just don鈥檛 have the depth of quality players like we鈥檝e had in the past. We鈥檙e not as strong, but we will still compete and battle and hopefully that鈥檚 enough to get through.鈥�
A turf ceremony dedication will also be held at noon today at Oak Bay鈥檚 new pitch.
Meanwhile, the double-A Island championship will be held in Campbell River where St. Michaels University School is a favourite to move on.
The single-A provincial championship is being held in Surrey and Glenlyon Norfolk School suffered its first loss in penalty kicks to Southpointe on Tueday, which takes them out of a gold-medal repeat scenario from last year.
GNS, which collected two wins on Monday, finished second in its pool, as did St. Andrew鈥檚, which finished with a 1-1-1 record in round-robin play. GNS will play Similkimeen for fifth place today, while St. Andrew鈥檚 will take on Credo Christian for seventh.
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