Winnipeg Free Press - Lucania provincial champs in hot-tempered soccer final

Mon Aug 30 2004

By Chris Cariou

The red cards flowed, the lightning and thunder hit, Marcello Paolucci scored in the 86th minute and defender Ian Brown saved the day in the dying seconds last night as Lucania edged defending champion Sokol 1-0 to claim the 2004 men's MSA Provincial Cup soccer championship.

In a game of high drama, bad tempers and poor discipline by Sokol that resulted in two ejections -- along with a temporary stoppage because of lightning at the Red River College soccer facility -- Paolucci finally scored on Sokol goalkeeper Franklin Hernandez only seven minutes after Dragan Planinac was tossed for taking his second yellow card.

Earlier, Sokol's Greg Adamiec was thrown out of the game for a vicious tackle on Lucania's Franco Cassano. The ejection of Planinac left Sokol two men short from the 79th minute on and Lucania pressed, scoring on a scramble after Hernandez could not corral a rebound.
But with only seconds left, Sokol striker Nino Mandic broke in on the left side and his shot sailed past Lucania keeper Bill Klymchuk, only to be booted safely away by Brown, saving the Lucania victory. They'll represent Manitoba at the national championships Oct. 6-11 in Prince Edward Island.

Lucania will be joined there by Team United, who used a goal by Kimberly Small to beat defending champion Sweat Shack 1-0 in the women's senior final earlier yesterday.
"No one wants to see a final settled like this (with one team earning two red cards), but unfortunately that's the way it went and we're happy," said Paolucci. "We still finished the game off. We look at (Sokol playing two men short) as a bonus, but we still finished the game off." Lucania coach Kevin MacKay said Lucania had a good work ethic and great fitness and they wore down Sokol, especially after they found themselves two men short. But when the game was suspended because of lightning with only three minutes left, MacKay warned his players victory wasn't theirs yet and Sokol would have one final burst.

"We have a little tradition on our team that if you haven't scored a goal, we call you maiden," he said. "Well, it was one of our maidens that took the goal away from them and cleared it. Ian Brown hasn't scored a goal all year, but that was probably the biggest play, just clearing it off the line there at the end.

"We're happy to be going to P.E.I. and we think we'll represent the province pretty well."
In the women's game, Team United coach Victor Sloane-Smith said his team lost 3-1 and 2-0 to Sweat Shack in the regular season and while yesterday's victory wasn't pretty, his side was well-deserving of the win.

"The kids weren't at their best today, but they were at their fighting best and that's what brought them through," he said. "They fought all the way for this. This was all about what's in here, in the heart, and they did that. I think if they play with the same amount of heart in Prince Edward Island, they'll hold their own."

chris.cariou@freepress.mb.ca