Pioneers Battle Back to Salvage a Tie

Peace Arch 2 Richmond Pioneers 2

The belief that last weeks impressive showing against the New West Regals would be the catalyst to turn around the Richmond Pioneers stop and start season was quickly dispelled with a disappointing performance against bogey team Peace Arch, as the Pioneers had to settle for a 2-2 tie.

The Pioneers started out impressively, with most of the play concentrated in the Peace Arch half. The closest the Pioneers came to scoring was when Dennis Luk hit the side netting, and two long range efforts from Graham Mason that briefly threatened the goal but were ultimately off target.

Peace Arch got the only goal of the first half, a shot that fortuitously went in off the post.

It was becoming increasingly evident that Peace Arch had a 'twelfth man' on their side: the referee. He was making some mysterious calls, all of them benefitting the home team, a team he supposedly used to play for.

Down 1-0 at the half, the Pioneers pushed forward with more urgency in search of the equaliser.

Then disaster struck, as the Pioneer's literally fell asleep. When Mike Mogul and Denis Harvington got their wires well and truly crossed on the left touchline, Mogul gifted the ball to a Peace Arch player who in turn cut the ball inside to a waiting midfielder. His speculative 25 yard shot (others, who shall not be named in this match report, suggested it was more like 65 yards) found Pioneer keeper Dave Valitis doing a convincing impression of a statue as the ball floated unerringly into the top corner of the net.

Now two goals down, the Pioneers had a hill to climb. Midway through the half, Evgeni Kushnir battled hard to win the ball, crossing across the face of the goal where Stan Bogdanovich was waiting to stroke it home and reduce the deficit to just one goal.

With 15 minutes to go, John Murphy broke through down the left wing and delivered a great cross. The Peace Arch central defender got a glancing header to Murphy's cross but the ball fell right into the path of the surging Graham Mason, who firmly blasted the ball home from just inside the 18 yard area to tie the game at 2-2.

The Pioneers efforts to find a winner were being thwarted at every step by the referee, who was increasingly becoming a thorn in the Pioneers side. After rejecting a valid appeal for a penalty kick after Kushnir was fouled, the referee gave Ken Kan a red card for a supposedly 'professional foul', the second consecutive game that Kan has got his marching orders.

In the end, the Pioneers had to settle for a 2-2 draw against a team they have only beaten once in the last four attempts.

This Sunday: Home game against BC Transit.

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