St. Lawrence: 2 - Mount Pearl: 2 Game Report by Gord Dunphy June 15

Damien Masterson(left), Shannon Tobin ( middle), David Pitman(right)

St. Lawrence tie Mount Pearl in a " Card Game"

In a game played in Mount Pearl, it was the Laurentian's that barely managed to tie Mount Pearl by a 2-2 score despite Mount Pearl being down two players for nearly 30 minutes. The story of this match had more to do with cards than it ever had to do with soccer. For what ever reason, the cards were stacked against Mount Pearl in this contest right from the opening whistle. It was referee Shannon Tobin who saw fit to issue a total of 7 yellow cards and they were all handed out to Mount Pearl. A fairly mild mannered Chris White received a pair of them. His aggressive, defensive partner Adam Drover also received a pair. Singles were handed out to Justin Pickford, Shannon Francis and Sean Drew. However St. Lawrence were fortunate enough not to draw a single caution in a game that tackles were as frequent as whistles. There is no doubt in my mind who the "Man of the Hour" was for this game and when this occurs the game is generally surrounded by mounting frustration and retaliation. Usually these type of contests ends in controversy and that's exactly what happened today. One could hardly blame Coach Walt Mavin being totally frustrated after the game.

In the opening half, both teams battled hard with very little to choose between each other. At the 23 minute mark, Justin Pickford, the leagues fastest striker, hit on the Laurentian's defence and beat Laurentian's goalkeeper Tristian Slaney for an opening goal. Shortly after that goal Pickford was buzzing in the Laurentian's zone, only this time the Laurentians keeper beat him to the ball and Pickford put up his cleats, and this forced the keeper to leave the game. For this infraction Pickford received his yellow card.The Laurentian's were then forced to bring in their number one goalie, John Douglas, who has a slight injury. Battles continued throughout the first half and remained for the duration of the half but very few quality scoring opportunities arose.
The second half opened with just a minute gone before Mount Pearl received a direct shot outside the Laurentian's 30 yard line. It was Andrew Moyst striking it and he connected on a sleepy looking Douglas. This made the score 2-0 for Mount Pearl. One minute after this goal the referee then went to his deck of cards and issued a card to Chris White. This was his second yellow card and as a result, he was escorted off the field. Twelve minute after this incident, Adam Drover was sent off the field for receiving his second yellow. By now the Mount Pearl team only had 9 players and the Laurentian's began their onslaught by totally outplaying their opponents. But despite their territorial edge in play they couldn't finish and it wasn't until the 84 minute mark before Marc Pittman drilled a shot from nearly 40 yards that Connolly couldn't handle, and the Laurentian's had their first goal.This was followed up by a superb header by Clinton Edwards, in the dying seconds of the match which resulted the game ending in a 2-2 final score.