Hosts Take Gold at Pacific Northwest Championship

Guildford A.C. with their Championship Medals

The 2009 Pacifc Northwest Championship had the strongest line-up of teams Guildford had seen all season; the tournament comprising of the top teams from A.C's own 5 district league and the best from the 4 district league as well.

Guildford opened the tournament against Coquitlam Metro Ford Spartans. The Spartans battled hard and physically outmatched A.C. for stretches of the game but fell victim to A.C.'s prowess on corners. Guildford put up a couple of late goals for a 4-0 final.

In their second game, A.C. was matched against the unknown Nanaimo Mustangs. Nanaimo grabbed their attention early by doing what had not been done by any opposition since October and that is get a shot past the Guildford keeper. Guildford slowly improved their play throughout the game and took a 2-1 lead into the half. In the second frame A.C. added six for an 8-1 final.

On Sunday morning A.C. needed only to score a single goal against SBMC Albion to advance to the gold medal game. The conditions were quickly deteriorating at kickoff as snow began to fall; the necessary goal, however, came quick as A.C. got on the board in the third minute. As the game wore on, the snowfall got progressively heavier and Guildford's offence kept adding goals. At halftime A.C. held a 5-0 lead. With the option to call the game, Albion insisted on continuing and within ten minutes the ref deemed the field unplayable and the score was declared final.

Late in the afternoon the fields cleared up and A.C. would take on the Dunbar Spartans in the final. Dunbar presented a difficult defensive line to penetrate only allowing Guildford to get shots from bad angles. A.C., for their part, squandered multiple corners before finally opening the scoring on a ball that was fed into the box from the goal line and slotted home for the 1-0 lead. The Spartans were able to build forward but struggled to get chances inside the last 20 yards of the pitch. Altough they gave up multiple chances, A.C. was able to keep Dunbar's chances from well out where they were handled easily by the Guildford keeper. Score 1-0 at the half.

Guildford carried more of the play in the second half but the Spartans continued to be stingy defensively. A.C. eventually struck again, finally finshing from a corner; the cross was nodded onto goal where the keeper appeared to make a spectacular save but the ball just trickled across the line for a 2-0 lead. Late in the game A.C. would add another for a 3-0 final.

The Guildford boys did well to come out on top amongst such strong opposition. A.C. plays their final tournament of the season next weekend in Burnaby where they hope to close the very successful campaign with one more gold medal.