THUNDER BAY – For two straight games the Thunder Bay Chill carried narrow leads into the late stages of games.
Once they were able to get away with it. But on Saturday, looking to complete a weekend sweep of the Springfield Synergy, they got burned.
An 86th minute goal from Phil Woods pulled Springfield even, allowing the visitors to draw 1-1 with the Chill in their Premier Development League contest at Tbaytel Field at Fort William Stadium.
The draw costs Thunder Bay (2-0-2) two potentially valuable points in the Heartland Division standings, remaining one point back of Springfield (2-2-3) though having three games in hand.
Chill striker Brandon Swartzendruber, who had multiple attempts to pot the insurance tally, was almost at a loss for words after the final whistle.
“It’s definitely disappointing. We did have our chances. I don’t know what to say,” he said
“If we put it away and put it to 2-0 earlier on that’s three points in the bag.”
Head coach Giovanni Petraglia said the club flirted with squandering the lead during their Friday game, which they ultimately managed to escape from with a 1-0 win.
They shouldn’t have expected the same result a second time around, even though they had a much more complete and solid performance.
“Right now we have a problem in that we can’t kill the game,” Petraglia said.
“The second goal, the insurance goal, is the most important part of the game when you go up. You have to close the game. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is. Anybody can tie the game.”
The coach described the club’s first half, even though held scoreless, as one of their better opening 45 minutes of a game so far this season.
The Chill controlled possession and despite keeper Daniel Milton having to make one key save, were more active on the Springfield end of the pitch than the other way around.
Thunder Bay generated a number of scoring opportunities but could not solve Synergy keeper Yuta Nomura through the first 60 minutes, until the netminder literally hand delivered a gift to the home side.
Nomura advanced towards the edge of his box to pick up a loose ball, and potentially getting confused with both soccer and football lines on the pitch, picked it up on the wrong side of the line.
That awarded the Chill with a free kick in the 62nd minute, which midfielder Sergio Campano Franco took and buried by chipping the try through the wall of 10 Synergy defenders and eldued Nomura.
Thunder Bay pressed for extra cushion but were denied on each attempt. John Stojvcevski delivered a booming try in the 70th minute but was turned aside. About 11 minutes later Swartzendruber received a beautiful through ball and got in close on Nomura but could not elevate his shot over the keeper.
The fact that those scoring opportunities were there is a good sign in itself.
“There are positive things to take from it and that’s hopefully what we’ll do moving forward, look at what we did do well and clean it up moving forward,” Swartzendruber said.
While those may help in the long-term, the inability to finish came back to haunt the club in the dying stages.
Springfield’s Paris Martins had just subbed into the game and delivered a cross toward the Chill goal, which Milton knocked down but Wood drove the ball home to secure the point.
The Chill hit the road next weekend for games on Saturday and Sunday against WSA Winnipeg.
