THUNDER BAY – Sometimes a little luck goes a long way in soccer.
On Saturday night the Thunder Bay Chill found a little good fortune toward the end of their match against WSA Winnipeg, a must-win contest as the Premier Development League club continued its unlikely push toward the post-season.
With the Chill pressing for nearly 20 minutes in search of the go-ahead goal to secure a crucial three points against their division rival, Nathan Heath fired an innocent-looking shot toward the Winnipeg net in the 88th minute.
That’s when Lady Luck struck.
The ball crashed into Winnipeg’s Prince Amora and careened into the net past keeper Evan Barker, securing a 2-1 win at Fort William Stadium that may just have salvaged Thunder Bay’s season.
There’s still a long way to go, said coach Giovanni Petraglia, but at least they’ve given themselves a chance with two straight wins over winless Winnipeg (0-11-0).
The Chill (4-4-0) pulled to within four points of second-place Chicago (5-3-1) in the race for second place in the Heartland Division and two points of third place Kaw Valley (4-4-2).
“We’re back on track. Everything is in our hands. Sure, we need to win our games, but we don’t need to wait for other results from other fields,” Petraglia said.
“If we recover the players that we think we’ll recover this week, I believe we have a reasonable shot to make the playoffs again.”
That’s all they’re looking for, said Heath, who breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the final whistle sounded.
“That’s been the goal since the beginning. We wanted the playoffs. It has taken a couple of results elsewhere to put us in contention, but they’ve come and we’ve obviously got to grasp the opportunity, which we plan on doing,” Heath said.
The Chill jumped on the Winnipeg defence in a hurry in Saturday’s rematch, midfielder Marco Kuemmerle beating Barker in the sixth minute for a 1-0 lead they’d take to halftime.
But a breakdown on defence nine minutes into the second half nearly cost them dearly.
Winnipeg broke free on a three-on-one and Luis Melendez fired a shot on Chill keeper Matthew Mozinsky, who made the first stop. But Will Brown was in the right place at the right time and pounced on the rebound, firing into the Thunder Bay net to tie the game 1-1.
“We made a big mistake on the goal we conceded,” Petraglia said. “It’s something we should address right away, an immature mistake. Then we started to chase the game, because for us the tie’s not good enough, obviously.”
Sullivan Silva and Sergio Campano delivered chance after chance, but just couldn’t connect, the closest opportunity to score coming in the 71st, when Silva launched a spectacular bicycle kick that bounced off the crossbar and out of harm’s way.
Marc Fernandez missed an open net in the 83rd, but Heath came to the rescue, just when it was looking like the Chill might have to settle for the draw.
“I just whipped it in low and fortunately for us the guy put it in the back of the net,” Heath said.
Thunder Bay hits the road next weekend for three games, starting in St. Louis on Saturday night and concluding with contests in Chicago on July 2 and July 3.
