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Home  Articles 99/00 Season Drillers capture Game 1 thriller
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Drillers capture Game 1 thriller |
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Written by Joanne Ireland
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Wednesday, 05 April 2000 |
Shayne Campbell couldn't watch. He stood next to his roommate in the penalty box, clamped his eyes shut, then said a quick prayer.
Jim Larkin had no time to seek intervention. The Edmonton Drillers' goalkeeper, after 14 minutes and 59 seconds of non-stop action in the opening game of the National Professional Soccer League's National Conference semifinal, was staring into the eyes of Jeff Davis, the man the Kansas City Attack had sent out for yet another shootout attempt.
He'd already stopped Clovis Simas in what turned out to be the wildest finish this league may have ever seen, but now the Attack had a chance to even up the score -- all because Campbell had jumped out of the box to celebrate an earlier goal by Sipho Sibiya.
"I lost my head," said the defender, "but my prayer was answered."
Indeed it was.
Larkin put an end to the Attack's comeback when he shut down Davis. After that, Simas stepped up and scored the final goal of the night, but his shootout tally was still a point shy of victory.
"That was the longest game of my life," Larkin said after the Drill had posted a 26-25 win.
It was their first victory over Kansas City this year. During the regular season, the Attack had rolled out a 5-0 record.
The best-of-three series now moves to Kansas City.
"They were better by a shootout," said coach Zoran Savic. "But it's best out of three and we're going home."
Nothing that happens from here on in can compare to Tuesday night's game.
This one had it all: end-to-end runs, bad blood and goals. Lots of goals.
About the only thing missing were the fans. Just 3,125 took their seats at Skyreach to watch Edmonton build a 12-6 halftime lead.
Kansas City attacked in the second half. The visitors from the Midwest chipped away at the lead, finally evening the score midway through the third. With the score tied 14-14, the Drillers responded.
They pulled ahead by six, then took a 23-17 lead into the final frame. But once again, K.C. made a game of it. Wes Wade and Novi Marojevic scored back-to-back goals to cut the Drillers' lead to 25- 21. Simas added another at 13:44, but the Drillers stepped up to take control of the game.
Then with just .6 seconds left, Nikola Vignjevic threw Simas to the turf. Wade levelled the Edmonton striker and more pushing and shoving ensued. Wade, Rick Titus, Chris Handsor and Sammy Ekeme were tossed out.
Vignjevic headed to the box and so did Campbell, who was serving time for his ejected teammates.
The officials awarded a total of five shootouts. Three for K.C., two for Edmonton.
Simas converted the first attempt, while Paul Dailly, who was in for Vignjevic, the Drillers' shootout specialist, shot his onto the crossbar. Then all eyes turned to Simas, who was stopped by Larkin, and Sibiya. It was 26-24 when Campbell jumped out of the penalty box to celebrate.
"I think Simas just ran out of ideas because he had so many penalty shots," said Larkin.
"It was just fortunate for me that I got my body in front of a couple. I didn't know what was going on at the end. Fortunately for us we came out with a win. We got that monkey off our back against that team."
"I have to know better than that with .6 seconds left," concluded Campbell, "but he made the saves.
"We can look back now and say, `Well, we're one up on them and if we win on Thursday, we're set.' But it's going to be a tough ... we worked real hard for this one."
DRILL BITS
POINT MEN: Carmen D'Onofrio, Rick Titus, Kurt Bosch and Shayne Campbell all chipped in two points for Edmonton. Chris Clarke, Chris Handsor, Paul Dailly and Sipho Sibiya each scored two deuces. Nikola Vignjevic converted a shootout as did Sibya. Jeff Davies, Lester Felician, Alen Soso and Nate Houser scored two-pointers for K.C. Wes Wade and Clovis Simas doubled up on two-pointers, Novi Marojevic hit a three pointer and a two then Simas converted three shootouts and Davis added another point.
HIGHLIGHT REEL: To his credit, it was Sibiya who scored the game- winner and, with a total of 28 balls hitting the target, there really wasn't a shortage of highlight reel material. However, if one had to pick just one shot, it would be an early goal scored by Titus. With just 41 seconds left in the opening frame, Vignjevic teed up a free kick and sent the ball over to his teammate, who leapt in the air and left-footed the shot past K.C.'s Warren Westcoat.
NEXT UP: The two teams now travel to Kansas City to decide the best-of-three series. Game 2 goes Thursday. If a third game is necessary, it will be played on Monday.
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