A back-and-forth Tree Brewing Kelowna Men’s Over 35 Soccer League barn burner between Vernon Kal Tire FC and Kelowna Alves Bros. ended in a 4-4 tie Thursday at Marshall Field.
The home side will lament letting a pair of two-goal leads slip away.
Jesse Knight gave Kal Tire a 2-0 first-half lead. He first directed a Ryan Sharp long ball into the goal with his head, then drove to the net and finished with a sharp-angled shot that eluded the Kelowna keeper.
Knight has 14 goals on the year.
After Alves Bros. tied the game in the second half, Bryan Schenker restored the tiremen’s lead when he turned the clock back 10 years, ran around three Kelowna defenders and nailed his own sharp-angled shot that hit the far post and tucked inside the near post.
Schenker showed the first goal was no fluke when, minutes later, he stole the ball and buried a shot past the Alves Bros. keeper to make it 4-2 Kal Tire, and putting the home team in good position for three points.
The Kelowna squad, which sits third in the league table at 7-6-2, scored twice in the final 10 minutes.
With time winding down in the match, Glenn Allan had a breakaway but was unable to find the net and, a minute later, Rodney Goodchild got a feed from Tyler Johnson but rang his shot off the crossbar.
With a two minutes to go, Kal Tire had a scramble in front of the Alves Bros. net with multiple hits that were blocked and then finally cleared.
Despite the tie, Kal Tire remains in first place with a 13-1-1 record, and gained a point on second place Lake Country, who lost to Penticton.
The Vernon squad travels to Salmon Arm Thursday to meet the Beer Badgers (4-9-1).
Capri Insurance Men’s 55+ League
Kelowna North Country Appraisal Kickers put the boots to Vernon Kal Tire, scoring a 4-1 win Thursday at Marshall Field.
Terry Lowe had the lone goal for the tiremen (6-5-2), knocking in a rebound off a Glenn Jones rebound.
Kal Tire’s Schneider’s Meats Man of the Match was keeper Yogi Kongsdorf.
Vernon Silver Stars improved to 8-5-0 by pounding Lake Country’s Beasley FC 10-5 at Beasley Sports Field.
Robert Ross had three goals for the winners, who led 4-0 at the interval. Phil McNally – visiting and on loan from Liverpool (England, not FC), Mahmoud Abdelkader and Paul McCardle each scored twice for the winners.
North Okanagan Women’s Association Div. 2
OTC/Sunterra Sistas eked out a 3-2 win over Sir Winston’s Attack Thursday at Marshall Field.
After falling behind 1-0, Diane Neudorf tied the game for the Sistas in the second half.
Teammate Becky Birblis gave OTC/Sunterra a 2-1 lead, one-timing a pass inside the box from Andrea Zubot.
After Sir Winston’s equalized, Neudorf added the winner, beating two defenders after taking a feed from Zubot and blasting a shot past the keeper.
In the other contest, the Green Rockets held on for a 4-3 win over the Fantastic Four at Marshall Field.
Emma Louie, with a deuce, and Karinda McGraw scored for F-Squared, who received a terrific game from keeper Suzyn August, and who welcomed centre midfield Richelle Seguin back to the lineup.
Olivia Anderson and Alana Lindsay provided terrific defence in front of August.
