The Comox Valley United Men鈥檚 Soccer team had a flying start to the 2023/2024 soccer season in Division 1 of the Vancouver Island Soccer League (VISL).

The men won their first two games of the season, before suffering a 2-0 defeat to Bays United in Oak Bay on Sept. 24.

The season started Sept. 9 in Powell River against the Villa, who were celebrating their 50th anniversary, with celebrations all weekend long.

Edgar Jonathan Santos Escobar and Theo Fife supplied the goals for CVU, and Justin Black kept a clean sheet in net as the visitors won 2-0.

United鈥檚 first home game of the season was against Westcastle International Academy, and the Comox Valley crew improved to 2-0-0 with a 1-0 victory in front of a boistrous crowd of more than 100 fans.

Markus Ciastkowski, one of two 16-year-olds on the team, scored the lone goal of the game - a solid strike from the a sharp angle following a free kick.

Comox went a man up in the first 15 minutes of the game, after a Westcastle player took two quick yellow cards.

Westcastle kept up a lot of pressure with Comox keeper Fysher Zimmerman-Gibson needing to come up big, stopping a breakaway. Comox started to settle the game after this and created multiple opportunities, but the Westcastle goalie kept them in it.

At about the 70th minute, there was a quick heads up play after a foul that had Angus Hayman send Ciastkowski in on a partial break where he expertly picked out the top far corner to put Comox up 1-0. They held the the lead the rest of the game. Zimmerman-Gibson and Black split duties in net keeping clean sheets.

鈥淚t has been a fun start to the year with a great group of players and good numbers鈥� said team manager Rob Caya. 鈥淲e are consistently having 18-22 guys out to training and lots of competition for positions. We now have that right mix of age groups that we have been missing over the last few years. Theo and Markus being returning players from last year and only at 16 years old. A good number of 18-22-year-olds, and returning veterans make this team a lot more well rounded.鈥�

Comox Valley鈥檚 next game is Saturday, Sept. 30, 6 p.m. at Vanier Field, when they host the 1-1-1 Cowichan Axis FC. The match starts at 6 p.m.