While the Coquitlam Metro-Ford junior Wolves continue their Cup chase this weekend, the premier Wolves may be facing the end of the road after a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Olympics in Imperial Cup play on Wednesday.
Photograph by: NOW , file photo
COQUITLAM - Good habits have to be appreciated.
The Coquitlam Metro-Ford junior Wolves are enjoying the rewards of their winning ways, after collecting the Vancouver Metro under-21 men's league title. Now, they've set their sights on the U-21 Cup, and are nearly halfway to their goal.
They bested Guildford 1-0 and North Van Joe's 6-2 to begin the round-robin portion at 2-0.
On Saturday, Coquitlam has a chance to advance to the semifinals when they host Rino's Vancouver, 3 p.m. at Dr. Charles Best Secondary.
After capturing the regular season crown, edging West Van by a single point with a 12-2-2 record, the junior Wolves are addicted to winning.
And that's a good thing.
"You get use to winning, and after the boys locked up the league title they don't want to stop. They're a bunch of winners who love to win these things," said coach Russel Huggon, who noted the players have cashed in for five trophies over the past three years.
In two encounters during the season, Coquitlam pulled away with 2-1 and 3-0 decisions.
Huggon expects this cup affair to be tighter, like the former, as both squads will be well fortified with an eye on a provincial berth.
"We pride ourselves on the defensive side, we don't necessarily have all the best players," he noted. "During the season the best part was how over the last 11 games we gave up just four goals."
* The winning stopped on Wednesday for the Coquitlam Metro-Ford premier Wolves, after their Imperial Cup test against the Vancouver Olympics that began a week ago had to be picked up early in overtime after the lights were turned off at South Memorial Park.
The Olympics' Sasa Plavsic broke a 1-1 stalemate in the dying seconds of overtime to advance to the Cup semifinals.
"We had to trudge down there, get our team together, young guys in school, old guys with kids, we had to go there and then lost it on the last kick of the game," Huggon said with a sigh. "It was about to go to penalty kicks."
Before the game was postponed, Huggon had given Coquitlam a temporary lead at the 30 minute mark, converting Matthew Besuschko's cross. The Olympics tied it in the 55th minute.
Now the squad has to await other results to see if it still has a shot at a provincial berth.
They closed out the regular season in seventh spot with a 7-5-9 record.
