A year ago, Forest City London stunned the Thunder Bay Chill on the first day of the Premier Development League playoffs.
On Sunday it was the defending playoff champion’s turn to leave the field in disbelief, their season over at the hands of their Canadian rival.
Sergio Campano Franco and Paul Dillon scored first-half goals and Sunny Omoregie added an insurance tally late in the second, the 3-0 win sending the Chill to their fourth PDL final four in the past six seasons, a run started with a 2008 championship win. The league announced late Sunday the final four will be held in Austin, Texas. Other teams joining Thunder Bay are the host Austin Aztex, the Ocean City Noreasters and the Victoria Highlanders, who the Chill will play in Friday's semifinal.
“For 10 months I’ve been having that sour taste in my mouth, thinking about how London knocked us off last year and they only had one chance,” said Dillon, who made it 2-0, drilling a laser through traffic that eluded London keeper Reece Richardson.
“For this year, getting over them and getting over the (Michigan) Bucks was huge.”
Dillon, blessed with one of the strongest legs in the league, said he just wanted to put the ball on the net and hope for the best.
“You hit it low, you put it off the frame and you never know what happens. We’re playing on turf and it’s got some weird bounces. Luckily it went in. It rattled the keeper for the rest of the game and it kind of set the standard."
The goal came in the 42nd minute, some nine minutes after Campano Franco eased the tension blanketing the stands at Fort William Gardens as the two sides bitterly fought for field position and scoring chances. The Spanish import lifted the ball high in the air over Richardson, who could only watch as it deposited itself into the London net.
Chill coach Tony Colistro, doused with a Gatorade bucket full of ice-cold water by his players, was all business after the contest.
“Now that we’re Central Conference champions, which is where we wanted to be, again we’ve got to go back to work next week and hopefully take the national title again.”
The storyline couldn’t have written itself any better, Colistro added.
“Ontario champions, they beat us last year. They were PDL champs. It was all there. Obviously playing London it was a sweet victory for us, since they knocked us out last year. They’re a good side. They’re a strong side and I thought we played well enough to beat them tonight.”
The difference, he added was just telling his players to go out and play like they did all year in compiling a league-best 12-1-1 mark.
“There wasn’t a lot of coaching points at the beginning of the game.”
While the offence got much of the glory, it was the Chill’s stifling back-end that deserved most of the credit. Whether it was keeper Stephen Paterson turning aside threats, or defenders like Zetroy Robertson and Axel Sjoberg clogging up the lanes and frustrating the London attack, the Chill’s opponent just couldn’t find a hole.
“From the start of the season Tony told us for us to win this championship, we had to defend,” Robertson said. “And the last two games it wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t how we play, but we defended. We knew if we gave them one goal it would bring them back in the game, so we just fought for it.
“It’s just the feeling from losing last year. You don’t want to go back to that point and it was heartbreaking when we realized (last year) we weren’t in the final four. We decided this year we were going to fight for it. If we’re going to lose, we’re going to losing trying, real hard.”
Pitch marks: Only once since 1997 has the regular-season champion managed to win the PDL title. IN 2010 the Portland Timbers U23 went undefeated on their way to a title, knocking off Thunder Bay in the championship game ... The final is set for Sunday.
