Pirates lose close game

Last night's game started in darkness and ended in frustration. It was a late-night game (9:00 pm scheduled kick-off), so we were playing under the lights at Rossland North field. About five minutes before kickoff, the power went down in our area, so the field was plunged into darkness. Power was not restored for about 20 minutes, so we were more than 15 minutes late kicking off.

The game started well for the Pirates, with Matt L. scoring from the left wing within five minutes. A rough tackle by Brad H. resulted in a yellow card, although what the referee said he'd done didn't match what we saw from the sideline, or what Brad thought had happened when he came off the field at halftime. There is no in-game appeal mechanism, so we just had to carry on.

Matt L. scored his second goal just after Whitby Silver had equalized, again coming in tight to the post from the left side. Both teams had multiple shots on net after this, but the first half ended with the Pirates holding on to a 2-1 lead.

The second half showed the Pirates drop in intensity for the first 10 minutes, allowing Whitby Silver to finally get the equalizing goal. Five minutes later, a dramatic collision just outside the Silver goal area resulted in two yellow cards being shown. Unfortunately, the Pirate player involved in the collision was Brad H., who was then shown the Red card and ejected from the game. The Pirates had to play the rest of the game with only 10 players allowed on the field.

In spite of the numerical disadvantage, Silver still had few good opportunities until five minutes before the end of the game, when they finally found an angle to beat Matt L. (who'd switched from goal-scoring to goal-tending for the second half) for the go-ahead score.