Squamish FC was still vying for league positioning in the season's final game against Douglas Park on Sunday (April 13), but tallying their sixth draw wasn't enough to boost them out of fourth into a third-place finish.Sitting two points behind Shaheen FC, a win over second-placed Douglas Park would put them one point ahead. And in the first few minutes it looked like Squamish was going to cap off their inaugural season with a blow-out win despite missing key players like Gary O'Neil, Mark Sedgwick and Darryl Simmons.Chris Golaiy buried two quick goals in the first half. He charged down the left side and banked the ball off a Douglas Park defender to put his team in front 1-0. Minutes later, keeper John Cameron booted a long ball into enemy territory, which was corralled by Chris Wentworth, who had moved up from defence to fill in at forward. Wentworth put a short pass to Golaiy, who lobbed it over the challenging goalie."We knew we had to pounce on these guys fast because they are a good team," said Golaiy, adding that he was looking to bounce back after his Villa FC team was shut out by United FC in the Howe Sound Men's League Premiership Cup on Saturday (April 12)."With yesterday's result I knew I had to come out strong because I couldn't put anything away."Before the half ended, however, Douglas Park capitalized on a penalty shot to close the gap. Partway into the second half, Cameron was lined up on the firing line again as Douglas Park was given another pointblank shot. Cameron guessed left, but the shooter chose right. The game remained tied until the final minutes when Luis Oreamuno got the opportunity to fire back the game-winner with a penalty shot of his own. The Douglas Park goalie saved Oreamuno's attempt to shoot high up the middle, but the referee ruled a foot fault on the keeper. Oreamuno tried to catch the goalie off guard by repeating the target, but the keeper wasn't fooled.Cameron made sure the tie stuck with a huge save before the final whistle.Manager Dave Harrison said despite losing another two points through a draw, Squamish FC succeeded in finishing the year as one of the top teams to beat in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League Division 2 "B." It was important for the team to start strong in its first year and stir interest from the rest of the soccer community."There's quite a lot of interest now so when we have tryouts there seems like there will be more people who will want to come out," he said. "Because this is the first year people were waiting to see what happened. We have a really good team here, a really good core of a team and I think maybe one or two additions next year and we'll be fine." Squamish FC ended the season with a record of eight wins, six ties and four losses for 30 points. The full squad is representing the home fields at Brennan Park at Soccerfest, which starts Saturday (April 19).
