If it’s late August, it must be time for the North Enderby Timber and Turn-Key Controls to challenge for the Gibson Cup as North Okanagan Soccer League playoff champions.
The ultra-talented city rivals will for the third straight year meet tonight (7:00) for the NOSL title at the Greater Vernon Athletics Park.
NET and Turn-Key finished with identical records (15-1-2) and split the season series. NET gave up 17 goals and Turn-Key allowed 21. Both teams boast explosive offences.
The Timber squeaked out a 2-1 win over over pesky Peters Tirecraft, while Turn-Key grounded Courvas of Salmon Arm 3-1 in semifinal games Sunday night at MacDonald Park.
The Timber opened the scoring in the 44th minute when Jeff Nice juked a couple of defenders at the top of the box and went in alone slotting the ball home far post.
Tirecraft evened the score when an NET veteran muffed a pass back in the very long grass, sending in forward Clark Richardson for a breakaway goal against Danny Stein.
The Timber responded minutes later when Graham Ross chipped a through ball to Andrew Stein, who volleyed home the winner.
Turn-Key and third-place Courvas (9-6-3) played a physical battle from the opening whistle with the Controllers living up to their name controlling the majority of the possession in the opening of the half.
After some great build-up starting from the back end, Lendrit Ademi took a Courvas defender wide and swung a cross from the left side to the top of the 18 where winger Kanwar Pandhar headed home a looping header past the Courvas keeper.
Turn-Key got rewarded with a second goal towards half-time when Thomas Pool was found streaking in behind the Courvas net and was taken down by the keeper. Ademi converted the ensuing penalty kick.
The second half saw a Courvas squad determined to make a game of things and they got on the board early in the second half after a cross eluded the Turn-Key defence and keeper Gregg Douma before finding the foot of a Courvas forward for a tap-in.
Ademi was again involved when he took a great pass from the midfield in stride and added an insurance goal for Turn-Key, who were able to ward off a determined Courvas attack led by former UBCO Heat superstar Dylan Abbott.
Tirecraft, who finished fifth at 6-11-1 and made the postseason for the first time ever, went to Revelstoke Saturday night and stunned the Stallions 5-1 for their first playoff win.
Revelstoke (7-10-1) came out hard and caught the bus-legged Tirecraft team on their heels on a rainy night by connecting at three minutes.
Tirecraft regrouped and Torin Hampton evened the score five minutes later by putting in a dropped ball by the Revelstoke keeper. The score remained 1-1 until 10 minutes into the second half when Torin broke through the Revelstoke defence and buried the winner.
Vernon upped the tempo of the game allowing Richardson (2G) and Zach Anderson to finish Revelstoke off in dramatic fashion.
Turn-Key won 1-0 by forfeit over the last-place Salmon Arm Outlaws (1-14-3) to open the playoffs.
Pogos clip Camels 3-2
Rueben Cervantes buried a 12-yard corker far corner in the 83rd minute as Turn-Key Ogopogos clipped the Okanagan Spring Brewery Camels 3-2 Monday night at Marshall Field #1.
The Pogos improved to 8-11 and a guaranteed playoff spot in the Capri Insurance Men’s 45+ Soccer League. The Camels, with injured 24-goal man Johnny Orton watching on the sidelines, fell to 9-9-2.
Fullback Ken Kranenborg swiped a ball and fed Michael Brown up the flank with Brown passing to roadrunner Marty Steele for the 1-0 Camel lead at 20 minutes.
Mark Wasylyk was awarded a penalty kick 10 minutes later and pushed the ball past keeper Dave Dutcher’s hand for the equalizer.
Ian Butler curled a shot like a comma around the wall for a gorgeous 23-yard free kick past keeper Mike Moorlag in the 60th minute, making it 2-1 Humpbacks.
Bryan Schenker’s free kick hit the Camels’ post after Dutcher registered an incredible save, jumping to push the ball out of the way for the save.
Crafty Chris Arnason levelled the score by going top corner near the 77th minute.
The final minutes were drama-jammed with Schenker’s drive sailing into Dutcher’s chest and Wasylyk nailing the rebound off the crossbar.
The Camels quickly countered with Steele’s breakaway attempt smothered by Moorlag.
Gigi goes big for Mission
League scoring king Gigi Moldovan pulled the hat trick as Mission Cleaners dispatched Bosman Accounting 5-0 under the lights at Beasley Field in Lake Country.
Moldovan, who has 34 snipes, beat his check and nodded in a sweet corner by Dave Bertetic for the 2-0 goal. Moldovan was stopped by keeper Yogi Kongsdorf on a second-half penalty kick with Mission up 4-0.
Manny Almeida supplied the other two tallies, one off another Bertetic corner, giving him five goals on the year. Andy Jopling recorded the easy shutout.
Bosman gave the Cleaners a spirited game and kept a high energy tempo right to the end with fullback Mike Grace celebrating a huge work promotion phone call 15 minutes into the match by turning in an aggressive showing.
Kongsdorf took the White Spot Man of the Match.
Penticton United brushed back Kelowna’s Mind Smart 4-0 at Kings Park in Penticton.
United opened the scoring on a stellar free kick by Mike Beliveau which caught the Kelowna squad by surprise.
Although Penticton had several good chances to go ahead, the score remained 1-0 at half-time.
Penticton pressured hard in the second and were rewarded with goals by Yann Calmets, Chad Henderson and Zeke Pescada. Penticton went to 16-1-3. They will finish second behind Brown Benefits.
Tony Gonzalez fired two goals as Browns bounced the Pushor Mitchell Rented Mules 5-0 at Pakrinson Rec Field #16 in Kelowna.
Grant Campbell, Steve Fagan and Larry Kinakin provided singles for Browns (18-0-1). The Mules dipped to 0-13-6.
Gord Regan made a fantastic late save to preserve the shutout. Steve Heiss played net the opening 45.