THUNDER BAY – In the dying minutes of the opening half, Superior Rush FC keeper Isaac Guertin had the spotlight shining directly on him.
The Thunder Bay Chill U13 squad was up 2-0 and awarded a penalty kick, Eddy Black fouled in the box during injury time.
Black lined up and drilled the ball, but Guertin was up to the test, punching it away.
Only he punched it right back on Black’s foot.
The youngster slammed another shot on Rush keeper Isaac Guertin, looking for a three-goal lead to take to the half, but was once again thwarted.
It was the turning point of the match, said Rush coach Rob Pasqualino, whose team used the momentum to battle back in the second half, Dejen Berhane scoring in the 69th minute to even the score, securing a 2-2 draw that left each team with a 1-0-1 record at the Thunder Bay Chill International Invitational Tournament at Chapples Field.
“We all felt like that was kind of the turning point, that we could feed off of that,” Pasqualino said. “So our second half started to show that. We started moving a little bit more and pressing a little bit higher, started breaking the lines and we got a couple of chance where some things could have happened and they didn’t.
“We just had to keep going at that point because the game had turned a little bit.”
Chill coach Neil Carlson said his team knew the Rush were going to put on the pressure in the second half, but said the tournament was also about getting everyone experience too.
“It just came down to opportunity. They got a ball in the box, we made a mistake there and didn’t follow up and they capitalized in the moment. Overall, both teams played a great game,” Carlson said.
The mistake came with about three minutes to play.
Berhane grabbed the ball in the box and took a shot, which Chill keeper Kurt Boycko punched away, rather than snatching it out of midair and booting it out of harm’s way.
Given a second chance, Berhane slammed it home.
“I was just hoping for this kind of a chance when I subbed in,” Berhane said.
Seven minutes into the game, the Rush didn’t appear to have a chance.
The Chill were dominating ball possession and scored twice in a two-minute span to jump in front 2-0.
Lucas Ianni struck first, in the fifth minute, crossing the box with the ball and depositing it behind Guertin.
Two minutes later it was Paolo Galle’s turn to score.
The Chill had plenty of chances to add to their first-half lead.
They were awarded a free kick one foot from the top of the box, and scored on their first attempt, but it was waved off when the Rush’s Reese Carpenter was awarded a yellow, the team’s second in a matter of minutes.
Carpenter nearly got one of the goals back in the 35th, but fired wide on Chill starting keeper Odin Bromley.
Superior Rush finally got on the scoreboard in the 48th minute of the 70-minute contest, Mustafa Al Ali lifting the ball high to Boycko’s left, just under the crossbar to cut Thunder Bay’s lead to 2-1.
Up 2-1, Guertin made a diving stop on Black in the 66th to keep it a one-goal match.
The Chill and Rush are tied for second in the five-team event, behind Winnipeg’s 1V1 Futbol Dreams (2-0-0).
The Chill taken on Toronto Azzurri (0-2-0) at 4 p.m. on Saturday and Super Rush plays 1V1 Futbol Dreams at 6:30 p.m.
