When Pender won the playoff tournament last year, the other men's league teams were happy for the Bananas, because Pender are sporting nice guys and are the best hometown hosts with their barbecues.
This season, however, Pender changed from middle-of-the-pack, good-guy Beer Cup contenders to the regular season victors who won every game in the first half of the season.
First place Pender went into their last two games of the regular season with the league title still up for grabs. Pender couldn't lose a game, and they still had to run the gauntlet through third place CPU and second place IFCas their rivals looked to shave points from them.
In Pender vs CPU, CPU's Eoin Walker scored first, then Pender flooded the CPU defensive zone like high tide in Gunboat Bay, almost equalizing on Marcel VanderSteld's crossbar strike.
When the ref pointed at the penalty spot after Rod'Rodnaldo' Kammerlewentdown hard in the box, it looked like Pender had the tie they needed, until keeper John Law stacked the pads to give CPU the win.
Going into the final game of the season against IFC, Pender needed at least a tie. IFC's Dan Muir orchestrated through balls to the Pender net, but 'Big' Al Stewart took shots off his head, and stretched his legs in ways that would be the envy of a young ballerina.
Eventually, Jeremy Budd put one away, and Pender needed a goal, or they might have to wait another 25 years before the Bananas franchise won a league title.
Their chance came when Steve 'Banana' Peel bulldozed a ball down the left wing and put across apass that was put away by Adam VanderWoerld.
The men's tournament takes place this weekend at Connor Park in Halfmoon Bay and at Lions Park in Pender Harbour.
