It would be safe to say that, for a change, the visitors were the ones who were teetering on the edge of relegation and needed the points more than Powell River Villa.
In fact for 90 minutes Nanaimo United FC2 thought it had done enough to secure a win but a penalty kick in injury time allowed Villa to tie the game 2-2 and snatched the precious points away.
The temperature may have been a few degrees above zero but wind gusts of up to 70 kilometres per hour made for extremely harsh conditions at Brooks Turf field on Saturday evening.
Despite the weather the two teams opened with a lot of energy but for the first 30 minutes played mostly between the 18-yard lines.
The first shots fired at either net were taken from at least 30 yards out and neither keeper had difficulty making those saves.
Nanaimo broke the scoreless deadlock when a long ball down the right wing turned into a three-way challenge from Villa keeper Matt Liknes, defender Joel Harry and the Nanaimo striker.
Liknes corralled the ball but Harry was a little too aggressive and took the foul in the box against the Nanaimo player.
With just a few seconds left in the first half, Nanaimo made good on the penalty kick and took a 1-0 lead into the halftime break.
Villa looked a little rusty in its first match since the Christmas break but came out in the second half in much better form and had some good chances to even the score.
However, Nanaimo got the next goal on a very impressive run by the forward who pushed the ball down the wing, hurdled over a sliding tackle from Harry and launched a perfect shot past Liknes.
Villa was obviously stunned by the turn of events that led to the 2-0 deficit at 65 minutes and while it was recovering Nanaimo actually had a few glorious chances to increase its lead but didn’t convert them.
It would regret that when Jake Kenmuir was mugged by Nanaimo’s keeper in the box and Kye Taylor stepped up to stroke the ball in the right side of the net and close the gap
to 2-1 at 74 minutes.
It stayed that way all the way to the end of regulation, when Jordan Peters was tackled hard in Nanaimo’s box.
The official blew the play down and in remarkably similar circumstances to the end of the first half, Taylor stepped up and this time fired the ball into the left side to tie 2-2 in injury time.
Three penalty kicks of four goals scored was the story and Villa was very fortunate to have a chance late in the match.
“That part of it is out of our hands,” said Taylor, “and we’ll just take whatever we’re given.”
Of his two goals he said, “You’re never sure if you’re going to go the same way as your first penalty when you get two of them. The first one I just waited for him to move and I caught him going the wrong way and the second I was lucky to place it inside the corner.”
Villa was much more aggressive in the second half and Taylor said, “We had a chat at the half and felt hard done by to be down 1-0. We were more offensive-minded in the second half and created more chances.”
Villa’s next game is in Duncan to play Cowichan United FC2 on Saturday, February 4.
