A 1-1 draw between Valley Plaza Pharmasave and Damisona Roofing might have been a fitting result given the evenness of play, but if sure wasn't reflective of the number of quality scoring chances both teams enjoyed.
A fairly entertaining U15 coed encounter at the Howard Armstrong Sports Complex would see keepers from both sides limiting the goal count to just two as Valley East Soccer Club action continued on Monday evening.
Damisona opened the scoring in the 13th minute, taking advantage of a fortuitous bounce. Broedy Bertrand did not catch his initial attempt at a corner kick clean, but when the ball rebounded back in his direction, his second attempt sailed clear into the far corner, well beyond the reach of the netminder.
With a solid commitment to team defense, the Damisona back line of Tymber-Leigh Lytle, Bradley Walker and Quintin Bertrand did a nice job of keeping Pharmasave forwards to the outside in the early going.
In fact, it would take near flawless execution to pull the Valley Plaza players even. Mark McInroy redirected a perfect header on a lovely cross from Justin, leaving the Damisona keeper with little or no chance to make the save.
Damisona enjoyed an edge in play through the final 35 minutes, coming perilously close to breaking the deadlock on a handful of occasions. Foiling his opponents on multiple opportunities, Bradley Presse came through with three to four super-athletic saves, getting a hand on a well-placed shot from Sebastien Venne in the 37th minute and reacting quickly to save an own goal in the 61st minute.
At the other end, McInroy stepped in front of a clearing attempt but could not stop his shot from grazing the top of the crossbar in the 55th minute, with Damisona dodging a late bullet as Walker steered clear a shot rolling towards the empty net.
If the traditional houseleague soccer match-ups often involve very little dedication to defending, someone forgot to tell the Damisona crew. Playing textbook soccer at sweeper, Tymber-Leigh Lytle doesn't mind missing out on the goal-scoring glory for her team.
"My dad used to coach, so I used to play pretty much everywhere," she explained. "This year, I'm mostly a defender. I like sprinting, so if I'm further up, I get to sprint back. And I like getting the ball away from people."
In fact, playing in a primarily male division, Lytle displays no fear in challenging attacking forwards, most often with very successful results. "My friend told me that if they're dangling, you look at their stomach," explained Lytle.
"Then, you can usually get it away." Across the pitch, midfielder Craig Gamble was the most active of the Pharmasave crew, regularly covering the length of the field and distributing the ball nicely to his teammates.
"I have lots of endurance and I don't like losing the ball if I could have been there," explained Gamble after the game. While his role involves providing support for both attacking and defending co-horts on the Pharmasave eleven, his penchant is certainly at his own end of the pitch.
"My best is probably defense," he said. "I've just always been a good defender, always helped out a lot on the defense." Though he plays a few other sports, Gamble lists soccer as his favourite, bypassing a few offers to play competitively in favour of spending more of his summertime hanging out with friends and camping.
On this night, Gamble was pleased with the outcome. "We didn't have many subs, so it was tiring," he said. "Overall, I think we did pretty good." Play continues on the majority of the more than a dozen soccer fields at the Armstrong Complex four nights a week, Monday through Thursday, culminating in early August with playoff weekend.
