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EDC a win away from first Provincial Cup final

Burnaby-based mid-table Vancouver Metro Soccer League club having sweet run in cup play this season

 EDC FC Burnaby is hoping for a second consecutive cup final appearance this season.

The Burnaby-based premier division Vancouver Metro Soccer League club advanced to the final four last weekend with a 4-1 victory over the Richmond Hibernians at Hugh Boyd Turf last weekend.

Habib Mohammed scored three goals in the qu arter-final win, including the game winner in the 70th minute.

Ylya Malek, who assisted on all four EDC markers, crossed the ball to Mohammed who placed an impeccable header off the crossbar and behind the Richmond keeper.

Mohammed opened the scoring in the ninth minute, taking a through ball from Malek and cracking a shot to the top corner far post for EDC.

Twenty minutes later Richmond, which upset VMSL regular season champion West Van FC 1-0 in its opening game, drew even on a free kick.

But it was EDC’s game to win in the second half, thanks to the solid goalkeeping by Hugo Vasquez and the playmaking and finish from Malek and Mohammed.

Mohammed also scored on a breakaway in the 80th minute, before teammate Ducivan Desouza counted EDC’s fourth goal of the game five minutes later from inside the 18-yard box.

EDC began cup play with a 3-0 win over Vic West FC.

Despite finishing the regular season tied for seventh place with Croatia SC, the Burnaby club has played arguably some of its best soccer in cup play.

Recently, EDC made it all the way to its first-ever final in the Imperial Cup before falling 1-0 to league champion West Van.

EDC will take on Vancouver Island’s Cowichan FC this Saturday on Field 3 at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex-West at 3 p.m.

“Hopefully the boys deliver the W and put us into the finals, which would be huge for our club,” said EDC head coach and club president Claudio Ramirez.

Inter FC and North Delta will play in the other provincial cup semi.

The two semifinal winners will meet in the B.C. Soccer Provincial A Cup final on Sunday, May 10 at Willoughby Turf in Langley.

EDC finished the regular season with a 9-9-4 league record, just eight points shy of runner-up ICST Pegasus, with 39 points. West Van ran away with the VMSL title this season, amassing a record of 16-3-3 and 51 points.

Storied Columbus FC and Vancouver Olympics A were both relegated to Division 1 following the regular season.

Norvan FC A and FC Tigers from Vancouver earned promotion from Division 1 to the premier league next season.