New West Barcelona’s experiment of playing above its age group continues to prove successful.
Several years ago, the Royal City soccer association club team made the decision to challenge itself by moving up a division in B.C. Coastal girls’ soccer.
The u-17/18 Barca continued that trend this season in the Metro Women’s Soccer League under-21 A division with encouraging results.
To date, NW Barcelona has yet to lose a game and is making a strong case for a runaway debut season with a 10-0-1 record.
Last month, Barca posted a 7-0 win over last-place Vancouver Pumas to pump up its league-leading 57 goals for and skimpy 11 goals against.
As of this week, Barca led the league’s collegiate division by nine points more than seccond-place Croatia Threat.
Rachel Hutchinson, with 15 goals in 11 games so far this season, tops the overall scoring parade by a long shot.
“Barca continues to employ a skilful possession-based philosophy that focuses on technical proficiency, strong tactical decision making, and swift ball movement,” said New Westminster head coach Shawn Cody.
Barcelona’s close ties with Trinity Western University-based Fraser Valley Action under varsity head coach Graham Roxburgh is both unique and invaluable, Cody added.
The results are clearly evident, and with a number of the Barca players recently committed to post-secondary programs, the future continues to look bright for the elite club.
Two of the newest Barca players to commit early are New Westminster’s Juliet Davies to the University of Regina and Jessica Filippelli of Burnaby to TWU.
Hutchinson committed to Trinity Western earlier last summer and more announcements are to come, Cody said.
