For the third time in the past five years, the Royal City Westminster United boys team are rightful possessors of the Pioneer Cup.
The trophy, which marks the District 4 under-18 gold league champion, was corralled Sunday in a polished 4-0 victory over West Vancouver.
Led by Markus Zacharuk’s natural hat trick, the United took the lead at the 20-minute mark and never looked back.
He scored the game’s first three goals, although West Van’s netminder provided some resistence.
Counting the fourth goal was Ethan Haid, while Jake Puffer registered the shutout.
The club has enjoyed a fairly strong season in its final season, after nearly a dozen years together.
“We have a pretty fast team,” remarked coach Ed Zacharuk. “We’ve been on a roll pretty much since the end of September.”
Supplying key support were defenders Taylor Jensen, Shea Joshi and Naoll Degife.
Prior to the win over West Van, Royal City defeated South Burnaby 4-2 in overtime to clinch a berth into the Coastal Cup.
In that game, the United came back twice, forcing overtime before catapulting to victory with two unanswered markers.
“It took us a while to get going, as South Burnaby scored first off a corner (kick),” said the coach. “We were down 2-1 and needed to tie it up but soon as we scored that goal you could tell which way the surge was going.”
Supplying the offence were Dieved Penalver, with a hat trick, and Eduardo Machuca.
The team now prepares for its first Coastal Cup match on April 2.
