A hard battle was expected at Timberlane Park on Sunday, October 25, between two soccer teams separated by just a single point in the standings.
Heading into the game Powell River Villa was atop Nanaimo United FC 2 in the Vancouver Island Soccer League, but at the end of 90 minutes they lost 3-2 and fell two points behind.
It was hard to tell from looking at the benches that Powell River was the home team.
There were just three Villa subs available to the starting 11, including late-addition veteran Jamie Zroback, while Nanaimo had five or six at their disposal.
The reduced roster meant another conservative game plan for Villa, but Nanaimo made the most of some defensive lapses by the home team.
In fact, they turned all of them into goals, starting with rush down the left wing and a chip shot that cleared the outstretched hands of Villa keeper Matt Liknes.
Nanaimo went up 2-0 on a scramble in front at 23 minutes and Liknes got spiked in his effort to slide out to make the save.
Liknes hobbled back into the net but was in obvious discomfort and unable to make the save on Nanaimo’s next goal, a cross and volley, to put Villa in a deep 3-0 hole at 29 minutes.
Stunned by the sequence of events, Villa regrouped at the half and, with Jeremy Prosser in for Liknes, started the long climb back into the game.
They did it by upping the energy level and taking the game to Nanaimo, which started to pay dividends almost immediately.
The hard work paid off when a Villa corner found the head of Kye Taylor and the Nanaimo shutout was spoiled at 77 minutes.
The re-energized Villa players pushed hard and this time Daniel Paul put it in on another corner, but it was quickly cleared from behind the line by a defender.
Upon protest from Villa, the referee consulted with the linesman and determined the ball had cleared the goal line and Villa was within a goal of tying it up.
They pressed hard right up to the final minute and almost got the equalizer when a corner cleared the group and came down to Julien Welp on the far side.
“Missed it by two feet,” winced Welp after the game, “and it’s my favourite shot, too; my left foot.”
Defender Dean Thorsell liked the finish, but wasn’t thrilled with the start.
“We had a lot of holes in the first half,” he said. “That’s from lack of concentration, lack of marking and lack of defensive shape, but we tightened it up in the second half and it all starts from there.”
With the loss, Villa dropped a spot in VISL standings to sixth and have a tough match against Cermaq City Wave FC 2 in Campbell River on Saturday, October 31, at 2 pm.
