The Metro-Ford Wolves are officially off the schneid.
Winless through their opening two contests, the Wolves picked up their first win of the Vancouver Metro Soccer League season Tuesday with a 3-0 win over Norvan Pacific.
The Coquitlam-based premier soccer side got it done on account of a pair of goals from Luigi Pantusa and a single from Domenic Delli Santi. Keeper Dennis Kindel recorded the clean sheet in the Metro-Ford nets.
"It was a really good team performance," said Wolves coach Carlo Corazzin. "They started executing and playing the way we would like them too, and it all seemed to come together."
Pantusa's opening marker came about 20 minutes into the contest, when Andrew Veer sent a perfect through ball to Pantusa, who deposited a left-foot strike to the near post for what would ultimately be the winner.
Aaron Beattie played the role of setup man on Pantusa's second goal in what was an eerily similar play, as Beattie's through ball found Pantusa for yet another left-footed strike.
Delli Santi salted the win shortly after the onset of the second half off a pass at the top of the 18-yard box from Fahim Karmali.
The win moves the Wolves to a 1-1-1 record, good for seventh-place in the 12-team loop.
"We knew that we'd probably have to weather the storm in the first 10 to 15 minutes because they'd throw everything at us - and they did," Corazzin said. "Our gameplan was that once we got the ball, to keep it and make them chase us and stretch the field out."
Outside of four senior players, the average age on this year's Wolves roster hovers around 19 - the club has its share of inexperience within the ranks. That said, the end of the college season will see the team replenished with the likes of SFU players Carlo Basso, Jovan Blagojevic and Matt Besuschko, among others.
"It comes down to confidence with these guys," Corazzin said. "It's about getting them to believe in their abilities and then getting them to go out and execute. I see it at training all the time, but the toughest thing with young players is translating training into games."
And while the Wolves were fighting to regain traction, Columbus FC maintained its foothold atop the standings with a 1-0 win over the Vancouver Olympics.
Steve DeBlasio's header in the 52nd minute, set up by former PoCo FC veteran Tiernan King, held up as the winner.
Though the newly-promoted Olympic side did get some sniffs around the Columbus net, stellar defensive work courtesy of Jonathan Poli and Luca Bellisomo held the attack at bay.
"It was a bit of a miserable affair - a scrappy game from start to finish," said Columbus coach Thomas Mills. "I never really felt like we were going to lose, but it was dangerous territory to be in."
Mills' other team, PoCo FC of the Fraser Valley Soccer League, also came out of last weekend with a victory on their side, thanks to a 3-2 win over Vic West in Pacific Cup play.
Though down 1-0 just four minutes in, PoCo made it 2-1 by the midpoint of the second half off goals from Brendan Campbell and Jay Gangnes.
BJ Rockson upped PoCo's lead to 3-1 near the 65th minute, though a red card, an injury, and no available subs left PoCo to play to final 10 minutes with just nine men. Vic West would mount a frenzied attack in the last 10 minutes, though keeper Shea Kootstra-Nair did his part in preserving the win.
"It was a well deserved win, but we just made it very, very difficult on ourselves when it didn't need to be," Mills said.
