As the initial winners of what is slated to be a regular award, two Bainbridge Island Football Club teams were recently recognized as the youth and freshman “Game of the Week” selects by Ian McCallum, club director of coaching and the head coach of the Bainbridge High School boys soccer team.

The youth game of the week, he said, was BIFC ‘05 Blue, the Azules, against Bellevue YSC’05, played Saturday, Nov. 7 at Battle Point Park.

The game brought together the first- and second-place teams in the North Puget Sound League Division 2 to decide who will lead the division and potentially claim the league championship, McCallum reported.

The Azules got off to a fast start with a goal by Finn McCallum. It was a nice left footed shot from about eight yards away from the goal, and the capper on a fine passing sequence that began with Liam O’Brien and shot over to Brody Dunn, and eventually found Finn open in the box.

It really represents how well the team has earned team goals this season, McCallum noted.

The play went back and forth for most of the first half, with the Azules having the majority of chances, but Bellevue equalized in the 19th minute and the second half started 1-1.

The second half was evenly contested like the first, with the Azules having a bit more possession and creating more chances on goal than Bellevue.

The Azules got what turned out to be the game-winning goal in the fourth minute of the second half by Aidan McLennan.

It was an inspired piece of play by the young soccer player, where he fought and scrapped for the ball against several Bellevue players, McCallum said. He won the ball, made a great move to beat a defender and hit a hard shot past the Bellevue keeper.

“I am very proud of all nine players who played with great energy and desire for the whole game,” said Azules Head Coach Kellen Leven. “It was a team effort from beginning to end. We had great goalkeeping, we defended all over the field and showed creativity getting forward into the attack.”

The BIFC freshman game of the week was BIFC ‘00 Blue (BU15) versus Kitsap Alliance ‘00 Black, played Sunday, Nov. 8 at Battle Point Park.

BIFC ‘00 Blue (BU15) came into their Sunday match following a hard-fought tie with the Whatcom Rangers the day before, McCallum explained.

Running their typical 4-3-3 formation, the boys found themselves short a couple of players due to injuries from the previous game.

Despite this, BIFC started the game strong with solid possession based on two-three touch soccer between the midfield and forwards. Twenty minutes into the game a brilliant run by Andy Von Bereghy pulled the Kitsap defense across the field opening up the top of the box for David Nikunen. Receiving the square pass about 12 yards outside the box, Nikunen pushed the ball out to his right foot and cracked the ball into the upper right corner.

BIFC was able to maintain their lead 1-0 to the end of the half.

Second half adjustments included dropping Max Johnson into an outside back role. Playing out similar to the first half, Bainbridge maintained good possession and combined well in the final third of the game, McCallum said.

Andrew Mastors Rao provided constant harassment along Kitsap’s back line, denying them any opportunities to build out of their defense. In the 65th minute, Kitsap failed to cleanly clear a ball on the top of their box and Andy Von Bereghy snuck in and picked the ball off a defender’s foot, took two steps forward and buried the ball under the keeper’s outstretched arms.

Kitsap was increasingly stymied in the middle of the pitch, McCallum said. The final 10 minutes were made up of a handful of shots by BIFC — two went off the crossbar, but no further goals were made.

Finishing the game 2-0 pushed the boys to third place going into their bye week.