High five

Written by Gerry Prince

Saturday, 20 November 1999

Move over, Sonny and Cher. Thanks to an eight-point outing by Nikola Vignjevic, the beat goes on.  Vignjevic converted on four shootout attempts and set up four other Edmonton tallies as the Drill shaded the visiting Milwaukee Wave 16-15 in front of a crowd of 5,872 at Skyreach Centre last night.  The Drill are now 5-0 and the NPSL's only undefeated side.  "I scored tonight but everybody played together and played good," said Vignjevic following the victory which brought the curtain down on the Drill's season-opening, five-game homestand.  "We played good together. It's not just Nikki or Sipho (Sibiya) or somebody else. We played good defensive, we've got a good goalie and we've got great offensive players. I'm happy."  Trailing 5-2 with just over eight minutes to play in the opening half, Vignjevic singlehandedly engineered a Drill rally.  In between cashing in shootout attempts brought on by minor penalties to Milwaukee's Mike Richardson and Glen Carbonara, Vignjevic unleashed a drive off a restart which clipped Rick Titus in the knee and deflected past Wave goalkeeper Victor Nogueria for a two-pointer.  Vignjevic's second shootout marker of the opening half came with 51 seconds on the clock and gave the Drill a 6-5 lead heading to the locker room.  In the second half, the 28-year-old Serb assisted on a pair of two-pointers by Martin Dugas and foiled Nogueria on two more shootout attempts.  Rattling off five wins to open the season may come in handy as the season winds down, says Dugas.  "Before the season we weren't too consistent in two games at home back-to-back," said Dugas. "That was something that always made it close coming down to the finish with what results you get at the end of the season.  "We said that was huge. We're at home and we've got to take advantage of being at home and get the wins. To play a team like Milwaukee and get a good idea of exactly where we're at was really important for us at this stage."  After Milwaukee coach Keith Tozer was assessed a misconduct, Vignjevic chipped his fourth shootout effort over a sprawling Nogueria to put the Drill up 14-11 at 10:42 of the final frame.  The stage was set for another wild and woolly NPSL-style finish.  With Paul Dailly in the box serving a pushing minor, Brian Loftin cut Edmonton's lead to 14-12. But Dailly more than atoned for his faux pas with 1:19 to play, burying a Dugas feed for a deuce that made the score 16-12. With Richardson footing home a three-pointer from just over midfield 13 seconds later, Dailly's two-pointer proved to be the winner.  "That's indoor soccer," said Dailly.