The Burnaby Mountain Lions picked a good time to post their first win in BurWest high school boys’ soccer.
The sixth-seeded Lions upset No. 3 Burnaby South 2-1 in one of two quarter-final matches at Burnaby Lake Sports Complex-West on Wednesday.
Chilean international student Andres Sainte-Marie knocked home the game-winning tally off a goal-mouth scramble that resulted from a corner kick late in the second half.
Mountain’s Justin Arcand and Jason Sherle of South exchanged goals earlier in the match.
With their season on the line, South pressed for the equalizer but Lions’ keeper Diego Cortes was equal to the challenge, stopping a free kick opportunity with 10 minutes left and a late corner kick from South.
“Our motivation and aggression was the difference,” said Italian exchange student Marco Hyrat, who had a late point-blank shot on the South goal palmed away.
In the other quarter-final match, Cariboo Hill staged a second-half comeback behind a two-goal effort from captain Kirk Menezes to defeat the Burnaby North Vikings 3-1 in overtime at Burnaby Lake-West.
Paul Park gave North a 1-0 half-time lead, but the Vikings couldn’t hold off the Chargers.
Menezes tied the contest on a shot to the far corner from inside the 18-yard box. He also scored the game-winner in the second period of OT.
Alberto Pincelli counted an insurance goal later in the extra-time period.
“We knew it could have been our last game of the season,” said Menezes. “We came together as a team and that’s what we did.”
Mountain will take on regular season champion Burnaby Central in a semifinal match at Burnaby Lake West on Monday.
Cariboo Hill will meet Moscrop in the other semi. Both games are 3 p.m. starts.
Not invited
The toughest challenge for the Moscrop Panthers senior girls’ volleyball team is getting respect.
Moscrop remained unbeaten in the BurWest district following a three-set 25-16, 25-10, 25-11 win over Cariboo Hill Wednesday.
But the hardest thing for the first-year seniors is being accepted into tournaments dominated by the top-ranked 4A teams, said fourth-year coach Kim Or.
The Panthers, which have won district banners for the past three seasons, were ranked as high as 10th early in the year, but soon fell out of the polls after finding difficulty earning invitations to the big-name tournaments.
“We need to get into tough tournaments,” said Or. “Playing against tough competition, we’ll get better.”
