A year ago the Thunder Bay Chill were shocked in the first round of the Premier Development League playoffs.
They weren’t about to let it happen again – though the Michigan Bucks gave them everything they had Saturday in a 1-0 loss in the first of two Central Conference semifinal contests played at Fort William Stadium.
Sunny Omeregie scored the lone goal of the game, slamming home a pass from Abraham Villon in the 38th minute, the only mistake Michigan goalie Adam Grinwis made in the tightly-fought contest.
“Hopefully now that’s it and we’re just going to keep rolling through,” said Chill goalie Steve Paterson, who made several key saves and repeatedly thwarted the Bucks anytime they got within striking distance of the Thunder Bay net.
“It was important to get through the first game. Last year we went (to Michigan) and lost 1-0 to London in the first game. It was a hard-fought battle and we just didn’t come out strong. But that’s the past and this is what’s important right now. We’re past that that and now we’ve got to take the next game.”
Villon said the goal came on a play the Chill have been working on all week.
“I just made a run through the back and Jose (Altamirano) found me over the top. Luckily I put my body in front of the centre-back, caused a little havoc, laid the ball off to Sunny and he buried it,” said Villon, admitting it’s getting more and more intense as the post-season moves on.
“Definitely the pressure starts to build up, but we’re just trying to take it a game at a time, a half at a time and we’ll see what happens. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day.”
The Bucks looked like it might be their day in the opening minutes, pressuring the Chill defence with a sustained attack that led to a Thomas Catalano free kick in the fourth minute, a weak shot that Paterson easily turned aside.
Paterson had to stay alert.
In the 14th minute Michigan’s Zach Steinberger belted the ball toward the Thunder Bay goal, but once again Paterson got his hands on it, pushing aside the threat.
“The games we’ve given up goals haven’t turned out very well for us. We needed to keep the ball out of the net and I think we knew that as a defensive team,” Paterson said. “And we did that. The first half was difficult and there were a couple of sticky situations, but we pulled through and we got out of them.”
Altamirano had a chance to provide insurance in the 52nd minute, breaking free up the middle, but Grinwis raced out and beat him to the loose ball.
The Bucks, desperate to find the equalizer, started pressuring the Chill adamantly in the 71st, but time and time again the Thunder Bay defence was up to the task, knocking the ball out of harm’s way to erase a few more precious seconds off the clock.
“We can be an attacking team, a team with possession, but when it comes to the playoffs we’ve always said that defence wins championships. We changed the way we had to play and we were looking to be a little bit more direct,” Chill coach Tony Colistro said.
“We played tough defence and we knew one of our strikers was going to get a goal for us. Then we just went to work defensively and Steve had a great game for us.”
FC London edged the Real Colorado Foxes 1-0 in the other semifinal, winning 4-3 on penalty kicks. They'll take on the Chill in Sunday's conference final.
Pitch marks: Sergio Camano Franco, the Chill’s leading scorer, came off the bench after coming down with a bug. He entered about a third of the way into the second half … The Chill will learn the fate of team MVP Pedro Adam. They’ve appealed the second game of a suspension he earned with a red card in their regular-season finale against Winnipeg.
