It's a good thing Chris Fougner's left foot is better than his cartwheels.
The Lambrick Park midfielder struck a cracker from outside the box to break open a scoreless game about 38 minutes in and added a second goal off a header in the second half to pace the Lions to a 2-0 win over Reynolds in Colonist Cup quarter-final soccer play Thursday afternoon at Tyndall Park.
Both were followed by what he calls his patented celebratory cartwheel, which looked more like a flag flapping in the wind to those who braved the cool conditions.
"Those are bad cartwheels, for sure," Lions coach Heather Weir said with a chuckle afterwards.
"Hey, that's my signature move," scoffed Fougner. "It was nice to do it twice."
But most critics would agree the cartwheels weren't nearly as pretty as the actual goals. His first was a peach as he converted from outside the box after Morgan Varley failed to connect.
"Just kind of got a lucky bounce off our other centre midfielder, Morgan Varley," Fougner said of the description. "It came right to my left foot and I put it top right. It was pretty nice."
Then his second came off a free kick crossed by Spencer Scotney. The high arching offer eluded Reynolds goalkeeper Ken Hillaire and Fougner was in position to head it home about 65 minutes in.
"Beautiful. Across the box and he puts it in," said Weir, who admittedly was happy to see that second cartwheel, even if it was a little flat.
"It was a huge win," Weir said of the Lions' victory in a season which included a coaching change and lots of transition with the loss of several seniors. "The skill on this team is unbelievable and we've worked hard this year to kind of make that jell as a team effort. I think you can see that on the field, when we're playing as a team."
The Lions are defending Colonist Cup champions, having defeated GNS last season. Those two teams face each other in the semi-finals on Tuesday at 3: 30 at UVic. In other quarter-final action on Thursday, GNS blanked Oak Bay 2-0, while Claremont dumped SMUS 4-1. The biggest upset of the day, and likely the year, was St. Andrew's taking down No. 1 Stelly's 2-1 to advance to face Claremont in the other semi. St. Andrew's was coming off victory over Belmont in the Challenge Game on Wednesday.
"It was a nice win," Fougner said of the Lions' victory. "We tied them before and this was another battle. We got a little tired at the end and it showed with them being in our end the last 10 minutes, maybe 20."
Reynolds made the late push but Lambrick Park keeper Matt Turner kept a clean sheet, thanks to solid play by Manmeet Parmar who controlled the back line.
"We created a number of chances, especially towards the end, but hats off to Lam-brick," said Reynolds coach J.J. Atterbury. "They dropped back and defended well as a unit."
Reynolds now prepares for the triple-A Islands set for Nov. 6-7 in Victoria. [email protected]
