Victoria Sports Online

The 2009 Vancouver Island AAA Girls Soccer Championships wrapped up yesterday afternoon, as Victoria will be well represented at this year's BCs.

Yesterday began with the final matchups of round robin play that would determine who moved onto the medal round. The four local Victoria teams - Oak Bay, Reynolds, Claremont and Stelly's, all won their respective games against North Island opponents, therefore making the medal round games all-Victoria matchups.

The Victoria Highlanders FC remained undefeated in their short life this weekend, as they battled the Portland Timbers U 23 club to a 2-2 draw on Saturday night.

Victoria opened the scoring in the 18th minute as midfielder Nicolas Reyes scored his first goal with the team. Portland tied the game in the 31st on a free kick, but Victoria once again took the lead early in the second half with a goal from local boy Cole McFarlane. Unfortunately, Victoria couldn't quite keep the lead, as Portland tied the game for good in the 81st minute.

The Vancouver Island AAA Girls Soccer Championships will be taking place through tomorrow at the Pacific Institute for Sporting Excellence at Camosun as well as the Hampton Park soccer field near Tillicum.

This year's Ryan Cup champions Oak Bay Bays lead the Victoria contingent to the tournament, along with Reynolds, Claremont and regular season champions Stelly's. The North Island is represented by NDSS, Francis Kelsey, Vanier and Cow High.

The Victoria Grizzlies may not have been in the hunt, but the RBC Cup is coming back to British Columbia. The Vernon Vipers drive for five is complete – the Vipers are Canada’s first five-time national Junior A champions after blanking the Humboldt Broncos 2-0 in Sunday's RBC Cup Final.

The Victoria Grizzlies left everything on the ice, but it still wasn't enough to beat the Humbolt Broncos. Seven days after shocking the Victoria Grizzlies by scoring the game-winner shorthanded with just 1.1 seconds remaining in the third period, the Broncos got an overtime goal from Shawn Hunter with 2.3 ticks left on the clock to upend the Grizzlies again, this time 3-2 in Friday’s semifinal.

Just how dominating were the Vernon Vipers during the first two periods of their 6-3 win over the Kingston Voyageurs in Friday’s first semifinal at the 2009 RBC Cup? Through 40 minutes, the Vipers had almost as many goals (five) as the Voyageurs had shots (seven).

The Victoria Grizzlies have a 25% chance of hoisting the RBC Cup. Burned twice in RBC Cup games this week, the Victoria Grizzlies stayed away from the fire last night defeating the Summerside Western Capitals 6-3, assuring themselves a berth in Fridays semifinals at the national Junior A championship.

The Victoria Grizzlies were knocked out of the BCHL playoffs by the Powell River Kings. It was a blow for the team, but they knew it wasn’t the end of the line since they had a ticket to the RBC in their back pocket. On Tuesday night, the Grizzlies left no doubt they belonged at the national Junior A hockey championship but they still couldn’t beat the BCHL champion Vernon Vipers. Down 4-2 in the third period, the Vipers came back to defeat the Grizzlies 5-4, when Cole Ikkala scored on a rebound at 9:17 of the first overtime period.

The Vernon Vipers may in fact be the team to beat in this years RBC Cup. After winning their opening game on Sunday night, the B.C. Hockey League champion Vipers kept their foot on the gas pedal on Monday night, hammering the defending national champion Humboldt Broncos 7-1.

The Victoria Grizzlies could have been a deflated group after losing their first game of the RBC Cup tournament. The Grizzlies dominated their opening game against the defending champion Humboldt Broncos, only to give up a short-handed goal with 1 second remaining on the clock to lose the game 2-1. But deflated, the Grizz were not. Victoria rebounded with a convincing 5-0 win against the Kingston Kimco Voyageurs on Sunday night in front of 1,484 screaming fans at the Bear Mountain Arena.