The Sarnia Fury
(sponsored by TecSar and Boston Pizza) looked to
build on their season opening win against
Bluewater as they traveled to take on London
Croatia. After some initial opening pressure,
Croatia opened the scoring with a nice header
off of a corner kick. It looked as though the
Fury would go into halftime trailing only by a
goal, but a miscue in the 18 yard box gifted
Croatia with a second goal right on the halftime
whistle.
The Fury made some
adjustments during the halftime interval, and
their early pressure was rewarded this time as
Randy Dasilva collected a long pass from
goalkeeper Shane Bettridge and fired the ball
past the Croatia goalkeeper. With the momentum
from their first goal Sarnia pushed for the
equalizer. A nice bit of combined passing, and
a spectacular bicycle kick finish by Randy
Dasilva looked as though it had leveled the
score, only to have the goal taken off the board
by an offside call.
The momentum was
surely with the Fury at this point, but with
time winding down and Fury players committed
forward still pushing for the equalizer, Croatia
was able to counterattack against the run of
play and find an insurance marker with five
minutes to go.
The loss evens
the Fury record at 1-1 in the Western Ontario
Soccer League.
