It took the loss of two starting forwards, but Squamish FC's undefeated record is still intact after a frustrating draw against Signmaster on Saturday (Oct. 13) at Brennan Park.
Tempers flared on both sides as controversial calls (and non-calls) by the official prompted increased physical play. Russ Joel was booted off the field with a second yellow card in the second half for dishing out a body check shortly after Chris Golaiy suffered a broken hand when an opposing player pushed him to the ground.
Joel is suspended for this Saturday's (Oct. 20) home game against West Vancouver, said coach Rudy Venekamp.
"He was getting frustrated and we tried to tell him to control himself but that's pretty hard in the heat of the game."
Meanwhile, Golaiy's hand is broken at the base of his left thumb and requires surgery. Although the lefty won't be able to write for a while, he said the injury shouldn't keep him off the field.
"I want to play," he said on his way home from the hospital. "I don't want to miss four to six weeks just because of a stupid thumb."
Signmaster opened up the scoring in the first half on a penalty kick. Squamish had a great chance to even the score when Golaiy put a cross pass over to Joel at the right side of the net, but he didn't have enough room to slip the ball in.
Squamish tied the game at one-a-piece after a stellar cross from Rod Wilson found defender Luis Oreamuno's head.
"That was a wicked cross from Willie there," said Oreamuno. "A very wicked cross. I didn't know if he saw me going but he did. Rudy says 'go up go up' and I don't believe him because I'm supposed to be sweeper but it worked out."
The quick pass caught the Signmaster keeper off guard. And despite being more at home on defence, Oreamuno proved he knows how to bury the ball too.
"I took a quick peek and the keeper was right in the middle of the net so I had both sides showing. It's a matter of how hard you can connect with the ball and at the last second you think if I'm going to make good contact then I'll put it in a corner but if I'm not then I'll just try to flick it on net. I saw him in the middle so I picked a corner and went for it."
Darryl Simmons put Squamish in the lead just before half-time with a big kick from outside the box that found the top corner. Two minutes into the second half, Signmaster evened the game with a cross kick that caused a scramble in front of the net. Shortly after, keeper Kyle Lonsdale held on to the tie with a giant leaping save of a ball headed for the top corner.
Despite adding a point to the standings, Venekamp wasn't pleased with his team's performance. He said they have to go back to capitalizing on their offensive chances.
"Today, we didn't get into the game, period. There was no finishing. The guys didn't click - it was just one of those games."
Squamish remains in third place with 11 points in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League, two points behind Douglas Park at 13 and four points behind Bombastic SC at 15.
