THUNDER BAY – Sunday’s preseason finale was more about resting up for Friday’s home opener than the actual result.
The Thunder Bay Chill, concerned about nagging injuries to key players, chose to dress a young squad against Winnipeg Hellas SC, even bringing back four former players from the local men’s league, but couldn’t muster much offence and dropped a 1-0 decision at Tbaytel Place at Chapples Field.
The will to win was there, but the team just didn’t make the most of its chances, said forward Parker Mork, a student at Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute.
“I think we brought a lot of energy, but it definitely wasn’t up to our standards from yesterday,” said Mork, a day after the Chill dominated Winnipeg, winning 6-0 on Saturday night.
“I think we need to finish more chances, but we created a lot. We brought guys off the bench to protect the guys with injuries, so it was a good chance for us to get some minutes. But we needed to be better in the end.”
Teammate Matthew Keeler said there were plenty of positives, despite the outcome.
“I thought we did a pretty good job moving the ball. We had a lot of possessions, compared to the other team. The only thing that kind of held us apart was they finished their only chance. We had a lot of chances, but we didn’t finish them. That’s why it was 1-0,” Keeler said.
Neither the Chill nor Winnipeg managed to get any offence going in the opening half, the youngsters holding their own defensively.
Thunder Bay’s best chance in the first 45 minutes came in the ninth minute, when Keeler’s pass found the foot of Nick Phyllis, but the local hopeful booted it over the net.
Ten minutes later Mork’s shot on Winnipeg keeper Vassili Caravelis slid just wide. Phyllis later had a shot attempt blocked in the box in the 29th minute.
Winnipeg’s best opportunity of the first half came in the 36th when Krish Sugumaran broke free, with just the Thunder Bay keeper between him and the game’s first goal.
The keeper, Armann Thawer, bolted from his net and made a slide tackle that left Sugumaran in agony, a knee injury ultimately forcing him from the contest.
The on-field officials did not issue a foul, which would have led to an automatic red card as the last line of defence, and the two teams settled for a scoreless tie heading into halftime.
Thunder Bay’s Matteo Bosch had an early chance to open the second, but headed a corner kick over the Winnipeg net.
Hellas SC put two more shots on Thawer before finally solving the Thunder Bay netminder, forward Ethan Cabral breaking free up the middle and driving the ball home for what proved to be the game’s only goal.
Chill coach Tony Colistro struck with his youngsters until the final 10 minutes, when he brought in the arsenal, forwards Sullivan Silva, Diego Roveco, Tyler Attardo and Karim Bachir Bey. The foursome combined for five of the Chill’s six goals the night before, but it was a case of too little, too late.
Silva had the best chance, fouled just outside the penalty area, but his free kick couldn’t find the mark and Caravelis maintained his clean sheet through injury time.
Though he doesn’t like to lose, Colistro said it was important that his team hit Friday’s home opener against Bavarian United healthy and as close to full strength as possible.
“We used a lot of fresh legs today because we’re trying to manage minutes for our players. We want everybody available for us next Friday for the league opener. I thought we had a really good first half. We had some opportunities to score. I thought we kind of fell off a little bit in the second half, which meant I had to make some changes, which I was hoping not to do,” Colistro said. “But all in all, it was good which is what these friendlies are for, to see what players are able to do.”
Game time Friday night is 7 p.m.
