WEEK 3 RECAP • TIDE SPRING LEAGUE • APRIL 13, 2026 By Jordan Clarke

Pink Pulled The Trigger. The Wall Cracked.

The unbeaten club lost a member. The fortress finally bled. And a team built on heart just authored the upset of the season.

16 TEAMS • 3 WEEKS • 108 GOALS • 2 UNBEATEN

Three weeks in.

Twenty-four games. A hundred and eight goals. Two teams still standing.

Week 2 had four unbeatens and a power structure that looked permanent. Week 3 took a wrecking ball to it. Purple fell. Royal Blue fell. The team everyone wrote off as “heart over blueprint” just authored the upset of the season. And the two teams left at the top? One of them finally bled.

Let’s get into it.

§ 01 • THE RANKINGS • WEEK 3

TIDE Spring League
Power Rankings

Three weeks. Eight results that rewrote the pecking order. This is where teams actually stand — goals, defence, momentum, and the eye test all weighted appropriately.

POS	TEAM	W–L–D	GD	TAG
01	FOREST GREEN	3–0	+9	The Wall (Cracked, Not Broken)
02	NAVY	3–0	+11	The Machine
03	WHITE	2–1	+5	The Silent Assassins
04	ORANGE	2–1	+3	The Surge
05	PURPLE	2–1	+5	Dethroned
06	ROYAL BLUE	2–1	+4	Humbled
07	SILVER	2–1	+2	Giant Killers
08	LIME	1W–1PW–1L	+1	On The March
09	BLACK	1W–1PKL–1L	+2	Freefall
10	RED	0W–1PW–2L	−4	Off The Canvas
11	PINK	1–2	−5	Heart Over Blueprint
12	GOLD	1–2	−2	Counter-Punchers
13	KELLY GREEN	1–2	−5	Quiet
14	GREY	1–2	−8	Back To Earth
15	YELLOW	0W–1PKL–2L	−9	Still Searching
16	TEAL	0–3	−9	The Drought Is Over

01 Forest Green — The Wall (Cracked, Not Broken)

Three games. Three wins. Zero losses across all competitions.

The clean sheet is gone. Gold put two past Curtis Flynn and for a brief, beautiful moment the mortal world caught a glimpse of daylight. Then Forest Green scored four and slammed the door shut.

Kevin Smith (5 pts, 3G 2A) has quietly emerged as one of the league’s most dangerous attackers. Flynn still owns the best keeper numbers in the league: two clean sheets, two goals conceded in three appearances. Justin Parish and the Steelheads spine remain the gold standard.

Add a Waddy Cup win midweek and you’ve got a team playing on multiple fronts and winning on all of them. Still #1. Not close.

02 Navy — The Machine

Herman Parmar: nine goals in three games. Nine.

That’s not a hot streak. That’s a different sport entirely. Parmar is running away with the golden boot and we’re not even through April. Tristan Price (6 pts, 2G 4A) is the best playmaker in the league. Rowan Smith (5 pts) and Everett Piper (4 pts) keep chipping in. Navy put six on Teal and barely broke a sweat.

Seventeen goals scored in three games. The pace is absurd. The one caveat — and it’s the same caveat as last week — is Kai Joseph has conceded six. That’s the most of any team with a winning record. When Navy finally meet Forest Green, that leak becomes the entire story.

03 White — The Silent Assassins

From #6 to the podium. Read that again.

White just put four past Yellow without raising their voice. Two goals conceded in three games. Alexander Smith (4 pts, 3G 1A) is emerging as a genuine threat. Tim DenHartigh has a clean sheet and the second-best goals-against record in the league.

Connor Crichton and Tim den Hartigh’s defensive project isn’t sneaky anymore. It’s a statement. Nobody was talking about them. Everybody should be.

04 Orange — The Surge

From #11 to #4. The biggest jump in the rankings.

Remember the cry for help from the forwards? Answered. Emphatically. Orange put four on Grey and suddenly look like a team that figured something out between Weeks 2 and 3. Tianna Chau and Taya Brubacher have this team disciplined, hard to score on, and now — finally — dangerous going forward. The Surge is real.

05 Purple — Dethroned

It happened.

Pink 2, Purple 1. The unbeaten streak is done. The Clean Sheets Club has a new entry in the goals-against column. And the team that was supposed to cruise through April just got reminded that the Spring League doesn’t hand out free passes.

Jeevan Dhami (5 pts, 4G 1A) is still elite. The Lohsen-Irvine keeper rotation is still the best in the league — Jonte Lohsen leads all keepers with a clean sheet and zero goals conceded in his appearances. But the aura? Cracked. Gold is next. A response is required.

06 Royal Blue — Humbled

Silver 1, Royal Blue 0.

The bookie didn’t see that one coming. Paps took the L. The house lost. The team that was playing “don’t-do-anything-stupid football” did exactly that — failed to score against a Silver side everyone had written off.

Cade Smith (4 pts) is still ticking. Cliff MacFarlane and Declan Sanders still have a good squad. But the aura of inevitability? Gone. Just like Purple’s. Two contenders fell on the same night. The league noticed.

07 Silver — Giant Killers

From “Exposed” to giant killers in seven days. Silver knocked off Royal Blue 1–0 and suddenly the narrative around this team has flipped entirely. Keeth Winia earned a clean sheet. The Forest Green beating feels like ancient history.

Poppy White’s decision to pick Silver over White? Looking a lot better this week.

08 Lime — On The March

Beat Kelly Green 2–0. A proper win. No penalty drama. No asterisks. Matt Archambault and Al Casta’s side is quietly accumulating. Five points from three games with a positive GD. Nobody is scared of Lime. That’s exactly when Lime becomes scary.

09 Black — Freefall

Week 1: clinical five-goal opener. Week 2: upset by Grey. Week 3: drew with Red, lost the shootout.

That’s a trajectory, and it’s pointing the wrong way. The young core — Lavender White, Gideon Clarke, Micah Croswell — are learning that consistency is the hardest thing in this league.

A single point on the night. Not nothing. But not enough. The experienced heads on this roster need to steady the ship before the slide becomes permanent. The talent is there. The results aren’t. Yet.

10 Red — Off The Canvas

Red came out of nowhere.

After two weeks of watching Evan Mayer score goals and collect zero points, Red finally got something. The 2–2 draw with Black went to penalties. Red won. First points of the season.

It’s only a penalty win. The GD is still ugly. But momentum is real, and Sal Seif and Shelbie Paddle’s side just found some.

11 Pink — Heart Over Blueprint

Pink beat Purple.

That’s it. That’s the blurb.

George White and Chris Watson’s squad — the one with ten of thirteen players listing “attacking” as their draft preference, the one built on family and vibes and the belief that heart trumps structure — just took down the #2 ranked team in the league. The GD is still rough. The record is still below .500. None of that matters this week. More on this below.

12 Gold — Counter-Punchers

Michael Daniels (6 pts, 4G 2A) is doing everything humanly possible. Gold just ran into the best team in the league and came up short 4–2. The counter-punchers need someone to punch back against. Purple next. That’s the kind of fixture that defines a season.

13 Kelly Green — Quiet

Lost 0–2 to Lime. The professional act from Week 2 has gone quiet. Two goals in three games is a drought. Kelly Hall needs a spark.

14 Grey — Back To Earth

The Gospel of Grey lasted exactly one week. Orange put four on them and the GD column now reads −8. Miles Boulton (4 pts) is still dangerous. The defence is still a problem. That Week 2 ambush of Black feels like a long time ago.

15 Yellow — Still Searching

0–4 to White. The search for a win continues. Megan Branch’s squad is running out of runway to figure this out.

16 Teal — The Drought Is Over

They scored.

Three goals against Navy. After two games of absolute zero, Teal finally remembered what attacking looks like. They still lost 3–6. They still have zero points. But the drought is over. Sarah and Nic Jones’ defensive fortress is still searching for its first point. But three goals in a single game — against the league’s best attack, no less — is progress. In the Spring League, that counts.

§ 02 • THE MAIN EVENT • WEEK 3

Pink Pulled
The Trigger

The 7:35 PM match was circled for all the wrong reasons.

Purple were 2–0. Two clean sheets. The Lohsen-Irvine keeper rotation was the best in the business. Pink were 0–2, −6 GD, and running a philosophy that looked great in the dressing room and rough on the scoreboard.

Nobody gave Pink a chance. Pink didn’t care.

PINK 2 • PURPLE 1 • FINAL
The team built on vibes just beat the team built on structure.

The team with ten of thirteen players listing “attacking” as their draft preference finally turned that into something concrete. George White’s side found two goals against a defence that had conceded exactly zero in two games.

Purple couldn’t respond. The equaliser never came. The Clean Sheets Club has a blemish, and Pink — beautiful, chaotic, optimistic Pink — have their first win.

This is the Spring League at its absolute best. The team built on vibes just beat the team built on structure. Heart over blueprint isn’t just a tagline anymore. It’s a result.

§ 03 • THE FORTRESS • WEEK 3

The Wall
Cracked

Two games. Zero goals conceded. That was the Forest Green headline.

Three games. Two goals conceded. That’s the new one.

Gold put two past Curtis Flynn and for approximately twelve minutes, the league believed that Forest Green were mortal. Then Kevin Smith and company scored four and reminded everyone why they’re #1.

The clean-sheet streak is gone. The unbeaten streak is very much alive. And with a Waddy Cup win in the books as well, Forest Green are playing on multiple fronts and winning on all of them.

CURTIS FLYNN: 2 CS, 2 GA IN 3 APPEARANCES. THE WALL CRACKED. IT DIDN’T BREAK.

§ 04 • THE MACHINE • WEEK 3

Navy’s
Nine-Goal Man

Herman Parmar is averaging three goals per game.

Let that breathe.

Nine goals. Three games. Zero assists because sharing has never been on the agenda. Parmar is running away with the golden boot and we’re not even through April.

PLAYER	LINE	NOTE
Herman Parmar	9G, 0A	League leader by a canyon.
Tristan Price	2G, 4A	Best passer in the league.
Rowan Smith	2G, 3A	Steady.
Everett Piper	3G, 1A	Fourth option, still scoring.

Navy put six on Teal (who, credit where it’s due, put three back). Seventeen goals in three games. The pace is absurd.

The question isn’t whether Navy can keep this up. It’s whether anyone can slow them down before they meet Forest Green.

§ 05 • THE FALLOUT • WEEK 3

The Night Two
Contenders Fell

Monday, April 13th will be remembered as the night the league’s power structure cracked.

Purple fell to Pink. 2–1. Royal Blue fell to Silver. 1–0.

Two teams that were 2–0 and sitting pretty in the top four. Two teams that looked like they had the league figured out. Both gone on the same night.

Silver’s win was the quieter of the two — a disciplined 1–0 from a side that was labelled “Exposed” seven days ago. Keeth Winia earned a clean sheet. Paps had no answer.

Pink’s win was the louder one. The one that rewrites narratives. The one that gets talked about in the parking lot for three weeks straight.

Two contenders fell. The league shrugged and kept moving.

§ 06 • THE NUMBERS • WEEK 3

Cooked
/ Cooking

Cooked

Purple’s unbeaten streak
Royal Blue’s aura of inevitability
The idea that Pink were just here for vibes
Forest Green’s clean-sheet streak (but not their title credentials)
Any remaining notion that the Week 2 top four was locked in

Cooking

Forest Green’s multi-competition dominance
Herman Parmar’s golden boot campaign (9 goals in 3 games)
White’s silent climb to third
Orange’s surge from the bottom half to #4
Pink’s belief system, now backed by evidence

§ 07 • DISCIPLINE • WEEK 3

Sin Bin
Watch

Same five names. Same warning.

Mike Carroll (Silver). Justin Marinier (Royal Blue). Paulo Pheasey (Kelly Green). Isaiah Clarke (Black). Justin Paulson (Black).

All sitting on two demerits. The line hasn’t moved. Keep it that way. Play hard. Play clean.

§ 08 • UNDER THE RADAR • WEEK 3

Stat
Watch

The power rankings get the headlines. These numbers tell the real story.

The Smith Invasion

Four Smiths in the top ten scorers. Four different teams. Zero relation. Like Agent Smith in The Matrix, they just keep multiplying — and every time you think you’ve dealt with one, another appears on a different team sheet wearing a different colour.

Rowan Smith (Navy, 5 pts). Kevin Smith (Forest Green, 5 pts). Cade Smith (Royal Blue, 4 pts). Alexander Smith (White, 4 pts). Combined: 18 points across four jerseys. The league isn’t a simulation. But if it were, the Smiths would be the glitch.

Mr. Anderson doesn’t play in the Spring League. The Smiths do. And they’re everywhere.

Black’s Paradox

Nine goals scored — third-most in the league. A positive goal difference. And only four points to show for it. Black can blow open any game in the league. They just can’t close one. The talent is screaming. The results are whispering.

Teal’s Backwards Logic

Teal’s best offensive game — three goals — came against the best team in the league. They scored zero against everyone else. When you only turn up against the team nobody can beat, the schedule isn’t your problem. Timing is.

§ 09 • THE WATSON FILE • WEEK 3

Father
& Son

Some stories don’t live on the scoresheet.

Chris Watson — “Watty” to everyone at the pitch — coaches Pink alongside George White. He’s a teacher by trade, a college volleyball coach by background, and a father who moved his family from Grand Prairie, Alberta to the Cowichan Valley and decided to pour himself into the local football scene.

His son, William Watson, showed up to the TIDE Youth Spring League two years ago with long blonde hair tucked under a bandana and proceeded to light the place on fire.

They called him Mini-Watty. Then Watty Jr. Then they just started calling him a problem.

The kid loves the sport. He’s often found at the pitch after school, putting in the work when nobody’s watching. Over two years he has worked relentlessly on his game. The raw athleticism was always there — the volleyball bloodline doesn’t lie — but the football IQ, the touch, the positioning? That was earned. Session by session. Monday by Monday.

This year, William headlines a strong group of 2013-born players from CVSA who have made the jump to Tier 1 soccer in the BC Premier League. They’ll play out of Nanaimo United — Cowichan doesn’t hold a Premier League seat, but Nanaimo and PFC do — and that’s a significant step.

Chris coached William’s group for the last three years. Now he’s standing ready to possibly coach some younger Watsons as they come through the system. The cycle continues.

Monday nights at the Spring League are about a lot of things — goals, power rankings, the bookie’s latest line. But they’re also about this: a father and son, both wearing Pink, both built the same way. Heart over blueprint. Family first. Figure out the rest on the pitch.

The Watsons are Spring League through and through.

Oh- and Watty Jr? Sunk the dagger on Purple with what was his first goal, and the game winning goal. Sign of things to come.

Pinky Blinders — Field Report · Pink’s PR Staff

§ 10 • THE BOOK • WEEK 4

Paps
Predictions

Owen Papineau doesn’t just keep clean sheets. He keeps a ledger. Every Monday night, somewhere between warm-ups and kickoff, the Royal Blue keeper is setting lines on matches he isn’t even playing in. When he can’t be there — lacrosse commitments, apparently — his network of henchmen are stationed around the pitch taking copious notes and reporting back.

The man took out a line of credit to fund the operation. He is hoping to turn his eventual winnings into a casino on the north end of town. This is not a joke. This is a business plan.

Unofficial. Unsanctioned. Potentially bankrupt by June.

Here are the Paps Lines for Week 4. All predictions are for entertainment purposes only. The house assumes no liability. The house also conceded to Silver last week, so factor that into your confidence level.

PAPS PREDICTIONS • WEEK 4 • APRIL 20

5:25 PM — Silver vs White

LINE: White −1.5 | O/U 2.5
PAPS PICK: White 2–0

Two teams that would rather concede a kidney than a goal. This is going to be an ugly, beautiful, defensive chess match. White have been the better side and Tim DenHartigh is in form. Silver just giant-killed Royal Blue so the confidence is there, but Paps says the magic runs out here. The house is taking White and the under.

🏆 Game of the Week: 5:25 PM — Gold vs Purple

LINE: Purple −1.5 | O/U 4.5
PAPS PICK: Purple 3–2

This is the one. Circle it. Tattoo it. Purple just lost to Pink and the entire league is watching to see if the crown was borrowed or earned. Michael Daniels (6 pts) vs the Lohsen-Irvine rotation is the best individual matchup of the week. Gold have nothing to lose and the league’s most dangerous lone wolf leading the line. Purple have everything to prove.

If Purple drop this one, the “Dethroned” tag becomes permanent. If they win, the Pink loss becomes a footnote. This is a legacy game in April. Paps is taking Purple, but only just.

6:30 PM — Black vs Lime

LINE: Black −1 | O/U 4.5
PAPS PICK: Black 3–1

The freefall has to stop somewhere. Right? Paps is betting on Black’s talent finally showing up for a full sixty. Lime are quietly competent and won’t gift you anything, but this is a squad with nine goals in three games. At some point the math catches up to the results. If Black lose this one, sell the stock.

6:30 PM — Kelly Green vs Navy

LINE: Navy −3.5 | O/U 6.5
PAPS PICK: Navy 5–1

Paps thought about making this line higher but didn’t want to be rude. Herman Parmar is averaging three goals a game. Kelly Green have scored twice all season. This is a lamb walking into a steakhouse and asking for a table. Prayers up for Kelly Green’s keeper.

7:35 PM — Yellow vs Orange

LINE: Orange −2 | O/U 3.5
PAPS PICK: Orange 3–0

Orange are surging. Yellow are searching for the light switch. Paps would set this line wider but the league frowns upon cruelty. The Surge rolls on.

7:35 PM — Pink vs Teal

LINE: Pink −1 | O/U 3.5
PAPS PICK: Pink 2–1

The vibes team vs the fortress with no offence. Pink are riding the high of beating Purple and Watty’s crew will be buzzing. Teal just found the net for the first time against Navy, so maybe the floodgates are open? Paps says no. The floodgates cracked. They didn’t open. Pink take this on energy alone.

8:40 PM — Grey vs Royal Blue

LINE: Royal Blue −2 | O/U 4.5
PAPS PICK: Royal Blue 3–1

Paps is picking his own team and he doesn’t care how that looks. Royal Blue just lost to Silver and the entire squad will be playing angry. Grey’s GD is −8 and they just shipped four to Orange. This is a professional response game for Royal Blue and a survival game for Grey.

Conflict of interest? Absolutely. Paps doesn’t care.

8:40 PM — Forest Green vs Red

LINE: Forest Green −3 | O/U 5.5
PAPS PICK: Forest Green 4–1

The Wall vs the team that just got off the canvas. Red finally picked up their first points with a penalty win over Black, and Evan Mayer is still one of the most dangerous strikers in the league. But this is Forest Green. Three wins. Zero losses across all competitions. Waddy Cup holders. The wall cracked against Gold but it didn’t break, and Paps doesn’t see Red being the team to finish the job.

The real question: can Mayer become the second person to score on Curtis Flynn? The henchmen will be watching closely.

§ 11 • THE VERDICT • WEEK 3

Bottom
Line

Three weeks down. Twelve to go.

Two teams are still perfect. Two more just fell from grace on the same night. A team built on heart just proved that vibes are a valid strategy. And a nine-goal striker is playing a sport the rest of us haven’t downloaded yet.

The league has separated.

The pretenders revealed themselves — and then immediately upset the contenders.

That’s the Spring League. That’s why we play on Mondays.

See you at the pitch.