Pushing too hard for the win ended up biting Cowichan LMG in a loss at home against Comox on Saturday evening.
Tied 1-1 late in the Vancouver Island Soccer League Div. 1 contest at the Sherman Road turf, Cowichan pressed to move ahead, and ended up giving up a goal on the counterattack, followed by a second goal that may or may not have actually happened. Just one of those, however, was enough, and Cowichan ended up falling 3-1.
“One-one wouldn’t have been a bad result,” Cowichan coach Glen Martin admitted. “Comox was playing very well.”
However, Martin felt the gamble was worth it, and said he would try the same strategy again, facing another tie.
“It was 1-1,” he said. “Going for it cost us one point. I’d rather go for it and lose one point.”
Losses are going to happen, said Martin, who has won multiple league titles, but never gone undefeated through a whole season, but soft goals are another thing.
“The losses don’t bother me as much as how we lost the game,” he said.
Comox opened the scoring with a goal that Martin deemed soft. Paddy Nelson made it 1-1 at the end of the first half with his league-leading sixth goal of the season.
“We felt OK [at halftime],” the coach said. “We felt that if we kept pushing we’d be alright.”
They pushed a little to hard as the game carried on, and got caught on the counterattack. Cowichan got called for a foul in their own end, and Comox was awarded a free kick that they capitalized on. Comox added another goal — albeit a questionable one — on a corner kick. LMG goalie Darian Achurch missed catching the kick, but Kevan Brown appeared to stop the ball, which was still in the air, before it crossed the line. The linesman still ruled it a goal.
“He was three yards up the line,” Martin said of the official. “It was impossible to tell if the whole ball crossed the line.”
Even though he didn’t blame it for the loss, Martin was disappointed in the officiating as a whole, including the referee, who was overseeing his first senior-level match of any sort.
“The ref didn’t cost us the game,” Martin said. “He was bad for both teams.”
Cowichan allowed two soft goals and one questionable one, Martin pointed out, and can’t let that happen again.
“We have to be tougher than that,” he said. “We have to be physically and mentally stronger. We’re going to lose games, but to lose a game like that is unacceptable at this level. It was a big loss for us. Hopefully we’ll learn something from it.”
LMG will try to turn things around this Friday when they play host to Lakehill at 7:30 p.m.
kevin.rothbauer@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter