Aeros downed in Chaves comeback - Portage Daily Graphic

“It’s tough when you’re still recovering from playing on Monday, and you’re going up against a good team on a smaller pitch.” — Aeros player/coach Danny Brooks

BY JOEY PAYEUR
Friday July 22, 2005

For 1970s television comedy fans, Welcome Back, Kotter was a laugh riot.On the other hand, Wednesday night’s episode of Welcome Back, Chaves brought grimaces rather than grins to the faces of Southport Aeros.Striker Duane Chaves, who made a miraculous recovery from a horrifying workplace accident in May, returned to the lineup and played the entire second half for the Aeros on Wednesday night in Manitoba Major Soccer League Second Division action against Roma S.C. in Winnipeg.But not even his presence could inspire a fatigued group of South-port kickers who had played only 48 hours earlier, as the local side fell 4-0 in a makeup game which was held after a June 12 postponement.“I want to play them again on our field,” said Aeros player/coach Danny Brooks, still stinging from the defeat a day later. “Maybe we can catch them playing their second game in two nights.“Was fatigue a factor? Yes and no. (Roma) certainly had the jump on us, being that it was their first game of the week. It’s tough when you’re still recovering from playing on Monday, and you’re going up against a good team on a smaller pitch. We struggled again with our ball control, and the sun was in our faces a lot, although that was the same for both teams.”The game was one of 277 in MMSL so far which have had to be rescheduled due to the copious amounts of rainfall which have plagued southern Manitoba this summer. That total blows the previous league record of 169, set last year, out of the water.The Aeros (2-5-3) are on a seven-game winless streak, going 0-4-3 since their last win, a 2-1 defeat of United Football Club on June 15. In that time, the team has managed only nine goals, and only have 15 in 10 games this year.The loss kept them in ninth place in Second Division, while Roma (3-2-5) moved five points ahead of Southport and into a fourth-place tie with Selkirk at 14 points.Last night, Roma vaulted to a 2-0 halftime lead on a pair of less than picturesque goals against goalkeeper Jay Barbour, who filled in for starter Bill Maluzynsky, who Brooks believed to have injured his knee during an accident at home.“The first one was a direct free kick, which Jay had in his hands and it just slipped through,” said Brooks.“The second one, they fired it across the box, it deflected off one of our guys right to one of theirs and it was in the net.“The third and the fourth were just breakdowns. It seemed every time we would get something going, we would have one little breakdown and, boom, we paid for it.”One ray of positive light for the Aeros was the re-emergence of Chaves, who spent just more than two months recovering from being hit twice with a metal shaft he was trying to insert into a lathe while working at Hi-Tec Indus-tries.Despite a diagnosis of an injured heart, lungs, spleen and broken arm and a possible prognosis of never playing again, the 20 year old beat the odds and jogged out after halftime to see his first action of the season.“It’s been a long time since he played, and it was good for him to get out there and run around a bit,” said Brooks.“We weren’t expecting too much from him. It’s going to take him a couple of games to get comfortable out there again. But from a fitness standpoint, he seemed OK.”With only one substitute player available, Southport had to bite the bullet and allow rookies like Jordan McAllister and Dawson Ogilvie to play the entire game.“They’re doing well, but you have to expect they’re going to make some mistakes,” Brooks said of the rookies. Southport will need not only Chaves to start feeling better, but the whole offence, as well if it plans to make any charge at the top two spots in the division to earn a promotion to First Division for next season.Those spots are currently held by league-leader F.C. Lusitania (9-1-1, 28 points) and Southport’s next opponent, Spitfire F.C. (6-1-1, 19 points), who beat the Aeros 4-0 at Southport Recreation Centre on May 30.“Spitfire’s another fast, aggressive team,” said Brooks. “We haven’t been getting our breaks around the net. We have to keep plugging away and earn those breaks.”BYE-BYE, BONI VITALIn MMSL Fourth Division news, Boni Vital Inferno S.C. jas flickered and died for at least this season.An announcement on the league website confirmed the Inferno has withdrawn from the league, with all future games involving the team cancelled. All results from previous games involving the Inferno will be removed from the standings, and Boni Vital will officially finish the year in last place in the 12-team division, which includes Southport United.That means only one other team, the second-to-last place finisher, will face relegation to Fifth Division after this year.The website added teams will be credited for scheduled games not yet played against Boni Vital.The news is important to Southport’s chances at avoiding relegation, as the Inferno had a record of 0-5-2 and were in 11th place, only two points back of 10th-place United, which was 1-7-1 for four points heading into last night’s game against Carman Kickers (2-5-1) in Carman.The score of that game was 0-0, improving United’s record to 1-7-2 for five points.