The Peninsula Co-op Highlanders have been toughened by two previous seasons in the higher-calibre W-League and it showed Sunday at Tyndall Park.
Goals by former Canada Under-20 players Jaclyn Sawicki from the University of Victoria Vikes and Katie Kraeutner from the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers openend the scoring and the Co-op Highlanders never looked back in a 4-1 Pacific Coast Soccer League victory over Kamloops.
Vikes product Jackie Harrison and former pro Liz Hansen added goals as Victoria went into the break leading 4-0.
“It could have been 7-0 or 8-0 in the first half if not for the Kamloops goalkeeper,” said Highlanders head coach Dave Dew, who pulled Sawicki, Kraeutner and several of his other starters for the second half.
“From the standpoint of pure, attacking soccer, the first half was aesthetically pleasing to watch. In the second half, we thought we’d have a look at some of our younger players. ”
Former Vikes player Alanna Bekkering scored the lone goal for Kamloops in the second half.
This is a dramatic drop in level from the W-League, in which the travel costs to places such as Southern California and Colorado proved too great, but Dew said his club is eager to maintain its standards.
“We’ll just carry on and not worry about the level of the competition,” he said. “We are going to operate and play with the same intensity and with the same standards as we did in the W-League.”
Dew pointed to the Vancouver Whitecaps and Fraser Valley Action as a couple of other teams in the Pacific Coast League as being “on the same page” as the Co-op Highlanders in terms of skill sets.
The Highlanders meet the Whitecaps next Monday in Vancouver.
