The Tacoma had scored three goals Friday night at Curtis HS Stadium. Usually, a three-goal output means the Tide have won easily. Tonight, it was a merely an effort to keep up with the five goals scored by the opposition. A dominate team at home, the Tide have traditionally controlled possession while on their home turf, and Friday night was no different. However, the Abbotsford Mariners were accurate with counter attack after counter attack. In the first half, Abbotsford had around five chances for quick counter attacks on the Tide net; they converted four of them and led by 4-2 at half.

The Tide actually trailed by a score of 3-0, 35 minutes into the match. It was less than a minute later that Rory Agu beat the Abbotsford goalkeeper to a ball just outside his penalty box to nod a ball around him and roll it into the net. The Tide had a life line, and they had their first goal of the night. It wouldn’t be their last goal of the night. Just as the Tide looked likely to take back momentum in front of their home crowd, the Mariners struck another ball into the Jordan Jennings net. The night was an excruciating one for Jennings since two of the four first half goals were basically assisted by Tide bad passes. Errant connections led to easy one on one’s for Abbotsford and they clinically finished them off.

With nothing to lose, the Tide looked more determined in the 2nd half. They were working much harder collectively and it paid off. Just three minutes after the 2nd half began, Mark Kilpatrick got his second goal of the night on a beautiful right footed blast to the top corner. The winger was left with excess space at the top of the box and he made the visitors pay. The goal made the score 3-4, with the Tide just one goal from equalizing a match that they tried their best to throw away.

It seemed, once again like the Tide were on their way to a higher gear, but similar to the first half, the goal instead locked the Yellows into cruise control. They were never able to break through with another goal despite a number of half chances. Instead, the Mariners put the match on ice with an 83rd minute goal from substitute, Spencer Schmidt on a 1v1 as the Canadians had beaten an unorganized offside trap for their fifth goal of the game. In summation, the match can be described as contest of poor defending. Individual defending from both teams was strong, but the collective effort left much to be desired. The Tide loss means they are eliminated from playoff contention.

The Tide get an immediate chance to flush the bad taste from Friday’s loss from their mouths as they return to Curtis HS Stadium on Sunday afternoon to take on the Victoria Highlanders for a Sunday, 3pm, kickoff. Tickets start at just $5.