The year-end men's soccer tournament took place last weekend, as the eight teams scrambled through the muck at rain-soaked Ted Dixon Memorial Park.
According to the league standings, teams were ranked into two pools, with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the semifinals. The remaining four teams played for the "best of the rest" Beer Cup. For the Beer Cup, Halfmoon Bay went at it with the boys from Pender, who were sporting shaved heads for the event.
Pender won the match in a shoot-out to win their second beer-filled cup in a row. This sparked speculation that it is the Beer Cup and not first place which the bald Bananas were truly striving for.
From the A pool, it was the Gibsons Pigs and Gibsons United that went forward, and from the B pool, Xenichen Wolves and Coast Progressive United advanced to the semifinals.
Both semifinals were close matches, as the Wolves squeaked past United 3-2.
For the Wolves, veteran striker Kevin August scored two goals, while Ian Dixon added a single. For United, speedsters Ken Fujimori and Sean Whalen each got singles.
In the other semifinal, league rivals Pigs and CPU played a hard-fought match. The Pigs quickly went up two, as Al Blattler tapped a ball in on the goal line, and Brian McAllister made a quick turn at the 18 to hit the top corner. Fume Tagahashi replied for CPU on a corner kick that curled over the Pigs' keeper and into the top corner, followed by another top corner from Brad Jennens.
CPU went down to 10 men after a player was ejected for a dangerous kick, and the Pigs' Ken Campbell then hit a 35-yard ball into the top of the net for the final goal and a trip to the finals.
In the final, it was the four-time tournament champion Wolves against the Pigs in a dramatic marathon match that swung back and forth, went into extra time and ended in a shoot-out.
The Pigs went up by two when McAllister put in a rebound and Campbell hit yet another 35-yarder into the top of the net.
The Wolves replied with four goals, to the background of a booming home crowd. Junior Dixon put away two penalty shots, Trent Dixon tapped one in, and August volleyed a cross into the net.
Pigs came within one to make it 4-3 when Campbell hit his penalty shot. Then in the last minute of regular time, referee John Palmer ignored the howling crowd and whistled a Pigs' free kick, which Campbell put away to tie it up.
The sun came out for the first time on the weekend as the game went into extra time. The Pigs pressured hard, as Ian Dixon headed a shot out off the Wolves' goal line and Eric Sullivan slid across the goal to keep a ball out of the net. The Wolves had chances too, and the crowd held its breath as August went up for a bicycle kick that just missed the far post.
After extra time elapsed, the match went to a dreaded shoot-out. As it was now past 6 p.m., the field lights came on, and the silenced crowd moved onto the field to watch the five shooters from each team. After Pigs' shooters failed to score, AJ Dixon jogged up to the spot and cracked the ball into the top corner to the cheers of the crowd and put a great end to another season of men's soccer.
The year-end ladies' tournament is set for the April 2 to 3 weekend. A schedule and location of games are still being determined.
