A lot of effort and sacrifice from both sides went into the battle that took place at Timberlane Park on Saturday afternoon, February 1.
Certainly, the arduous trip for Castaways FC 3A from Victoria and the preparation for the match by Powell River Villa warranted a much bigger crowd at the pitch but, for the few who showed up, it was well worth it.
Castaways’ coach Eric Purves, an injured player, said, “We wanted to play because we were having trouble getting guys [because of] injuries and work commitments.”
His team travelled in the middle of the night to catch the 5 am ferry out of Nanaimo and were to return the same day to complete an almost 24-hour road trip. “I’ve been up here many times,” he said, “but this trip was long and I much preferred the Comox one.”
Purves’ 11-man side with no substitutes took the pitch early in the match. After a collision between two players, he called “run it off” to an injured player. The player clutched his head and laid on the ground for a few minutes before he was able to continue, albeit on wobbly legs.
There was little choice under the circumstances, but there were several such collisions throughout the game for the same player, calling into question the decision to continue playing.
At 25 minutes Castaways got the first break on a handball by Villa in the box. On the penalty kick Villa keeper Matt Liknes stretched out his big body to block the shot that was headed into the net to his left. His save provided a big lift to the team.
Following a collision with Castaways’ keeper, Brody Harry got the call from referee Bruno Cristante. Ben Elliot took Villa’s penalty kick and made no mistake with a sharp blast to the lower right hand corner, giving Villa a 1-0 lead at 30 minutes.
Castaways responded with a surge and perhaps got a little too aggressive when a striker clobbered Liknes as he made a save.
A card was issued and after a few moments Liknes continued while he appeared to be bothered with a rib injury.
The half ended 1-0 Villa but the intense physical battles continued in the second.
The same Castaways player who was knocked silly in the first half was tackled hard and left to clutch his leg while Elliot received his yellow card from Cristante.
The penalty kick by Castaways’ Brandon North was successful this time and the score was tied 1-1 at 78 minutes.
On the next sequence of plays the ball was put through to Liknes who had it under control when the oft-injured Castaways player barrelled into him.
Liknes suffered a deep bruise injury to his leg and was under a blanket in the cold weather until he could be moved off the pitch to wait for an ambulance.
Ross Fitzgibbon replaced him for the remaining seven minutes and despite its best efforts Villa had to settle for the 1-1 tie.
“It’s not good for either team,” said coach Chris McDonough with a sigh. “We had the lead and it was an unfortunate call for the penalty. I thought we played okay at times but they came ready to go and they played a strong game and are a decent team.”
Looking at the standings, McDonough said, “We’re still in the mix, but we’ll need some teams to do us some favours.”
The ferry schedule forces Villa to postpone this week’s game on Salt Spring Island so the next game is a George Pearkes Cup match against SFFC Active Engineering 3A on Saturday, February 15, followed by a makeup game against Westcastle SSFC 3A Sunday, February 16.
