Week Ten in the PDL Northwest

Saturday night, the Cougars will visit the suddenly hot Cascade Surge. BYU has been playing well too, chalking up road wins at Ogden and Spokane. Zack De Francis is continuing to score with a goal in each of the last two games bringing him to a season total of 7 (check out my interview with Zack if you’re a De Francis fan). Brandon Gilliam has been excellent in goal, posting a 0.505 GAA (which would be good enough for 3rd place in the PDL if he had another 150 minutes or so of game time).

This is a tough, but winnable game for the Cougars, and a win could push them into a tie for 3rd place in the division with the Yakima Reds (who face a tough test at the Abbottsford Mariners).

Other interesting games this weekend include a Saturday evening tilt between the Tacoma Tide and the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency and Sunday’s Tacoma Abbotsford and Yakima Vancouver matches. Depending on how things turn out, Monday could see some new rankings in the PDL Northwest. For what it’s worth, here are my predictions:

• BYU Cougars @ Cascade Surge 1-0


• Yakima Reds @ Abbotsford Mariners 0-1


• Tacoma Tide @ Vancouver Whitecaps Residency 0-1


• Tacoma Tide @ Abbotsford Rangers 1-1


• Yakima Reds @ Vancouver Whitecaps Residency 0-2

BYU 2 games and 2 wins

Just a short report for now, I'll post more on Monday when I have some time.

The Cougars got a big win (1-5) over the Cascade Surge last night. I was out camping with my scouts, so I didn't get to see it. It sounds like there were some injuries coming out of that game though.

Tonight, BYU took 3 more points in a 1-2 win over Spokane. Zach DeFrancis scored twice tonight, and was easily the man of the match. With three goals over two games, I wouldn't be surprised to see him show up in the PDL team of the week.

Coach Watkins didn't sound like a coach with a +5 goal differential and an undefeated team. In his post-game comments. He talked about the teams need to get better at finishing, saying that the cougars need to work on their finishing and that they should have scored 5 goals tonight. He also talked about a need to improve defensively.

I can't wait to see how BYU does if they're going to improve on this start.