EDMONTON 8 LA CABANA 7 F
STOCKTON, Calif. – March 13, 2009 – Joseph Costouros’ golden goal lifted the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League Champion Edmonton Drillers (1-0) to a gut-wrenching 8-7 overtime win against La Cabaña de Tijuana in the opening match of the Professional Arena Soccer League championship tournament on Friday night.
Edmonton advances to the second round with the win and will face the Stockton Cougars on Saturday night at 7:30PM.
Former California Cougars midfielder Eduardo Velez netted the first goal of the tournament and four total goals in the loss for La Cabaña (0-1). He scored at least one goal in each quarter of regulation.
Edgar Rivas forced overtime when he connected on a shot set up by Velez’s battle with Edmonton keeper Tristan Ilko at the near post. Velez kicked the ball away from Ilko and dropped a loose ball to the middle of the Edmonton goal box. It was Rivas’ second goal of the match.
Edmonton took their largest lead of the night at 6-4 in the early part of the fourth quarter. Velez and La Cabana battled back and closed the lead to one before Jorge Corral tied it at six with 7:18 remaining.
Marco Pelligrino put the Drillers up by one again with 5:31 remaining in regulation, but Rivas’ goal with less than a minute remaining sent the match to overtime.
La Cabaña battled back from two goal deficits twice in the match. They trailed 3-1 during the middle of the second quarter and 6-4 in the fourth. The match saw four lead changes and was tied five times.
TIGRES DORADOS MRCI OAXACA 10 DENVER 9
The Denver Dynamite suffered a third quarter collapse and then came close to pulling off a miraculous comeback only to fall 10-9 to Tigres Dorados MRCI Oaxaca.
Chris Handsor had 4 goals and an assist in his return to the Dynamite roster and Garth Archibald plugged in two goals, including a bomb from 15 feet outside the yellow line, and two assists, but Denver was done in by a six-goal run by Oaxaca in the third period.
Denver’s goalkeeper Justin Dzuba injured his ankle and was forced to stay in the game with the Dynamite lacking a dressed backup on the road. But matching his team’s determination he stayed in the game and didn’t allow another goal.
The Dynamite went to the sixth attacker trailing 10-8 with 1:25 to go and could only muster one more goal before the final buzzer.
A quick skirmish between Ryan Creager and Jose Chavez resulted in double red cards. Red cards in the PASL-Pro do not carry a mandatory suspension and the league office determined that the red cards were a sufficient penalty and did not require further league action.
The Oaxaca-Cincinnati match will be followed by the Stockton Cougars and Edmonton Drillers at 7:30, The winners will meet Sunday at 1:00 in the PASL-Pro Championship.
