Looking to recapture a little momentum

Two weeks removed from its first Challenge Cup win this season, Corner Brook hopes time off won’t hurt too much

Who wouldn’t want a weekend off?

Well, some members of the Steers Insurance Corner Brook United FC Challenge Cup soccer team, that’s who.

The word momentum probably gets brought up in sports more than anywhere else, and for the first time in this 2017 Molson provincial senior men’s soccer season, Corner Brook actually found a little earlier this month, coming off a Canada Day weekend in which it posted its first win of the season, a 3-0 victory over the Gerry O’brien Financial Canada Games team.

But the result came just before the team headed into a two-week break.

Corner Brook (1-11-1), which was off last weekend, gets back into action today, when it hosts Holy Cross (4-3-3) in the first of back-to-back games at the Wellington Complex.

Corner Brook has scored a league-low five goals and given up a league-high 30.

In other words, it’s been tough sledding this summer.

“(It would have been) nice to get out there and keep meshing as a team, especially after getting a win,” said Corner Brook player Alex Hennessey.

Although spirits stayed up, Hennessey admitted the repeated losses had started to weigh on the players. The team could see improvements every weekend, but results still weren’t coming.

What makes things tougher is that the Conception Bay South Strikers, who rejoined the Challenge Cup league at the same time as Corner Brook three years ago, have been keeping their heads above water. The Strikers have a 5-4-2 record heading into a game against the league-leading and defending champion St. Lawrence Labatt Laurentians (8-3-1) tonight (7 o’clock) in Topsail.

That’s a remarkable turnaround from 2016 when C.B.S. didn’t register a win and just three ties in 22 outings.

However, Hennessy said C.B.S. has benefitted from some new players, brought in as a result of loosening in Soccer Canada rules on non-residents, while Corner Brook is basically fielding the same lineup as last year.

“I think it’s more like a new team for (C.B.S.),” said Hennessey. “We’re the same group trying to improve together.”

In today’s other Challenge Cup game, Feildians Ernst and Young (5-3-5) takes on the Mount Pearl First Choice Haircutters (5-2-4) in a 4 p.m. matchup at King George V Park.

The Games team (5-6-2) has today off, but will face Feildians Sunday at the Gushue Complex in Mount Pearl, following a 1 p.m. game between the Laurentians and Mount Pearl.