Cavan FC a point away from City
Battling with Peterborough City for first place in the East
After a 0-0 draw in their first meeting Cavan FC left little doubt about the outcome against Peterborough City on Friday night.
Cavan struck early and often in a 5-1 win at Eastgate Memorial Park. The match has first place implications in the Ontario Soccer League’s Central Region East.
Peterborough (7-3-3) still sits in first place with 24 points. Cavan (7-2-2) move into second place one point behind City at 23 but they have two games in hand.
Peterborough has one game remaining on the road against Olympiakos on Sept. 14. Cavan FC has three games remaining. Scarborough Azzurri (7-1-3) are in third place with three games left. Cavan faces Scarborough twice including 9 p.m. Friday at Fleming College.
Queen’s Park Rangers (6-1-5) are In fourth place with 19 points and two games left.
The first place team earns the right to be promoted to the OSL’s Provincial East Division for 2019.
Cavan FC put Peterborough on their heels by scoring just 90 seconds into the game. City keeper Sam Barratt stopped the initial shot but an unmarked Marlin Adams pounced on the loose ball.
“We didn’t finish in the game we tied 0-0 so we practised finishing a lot,” said Cavan coach Alex Penello. “We really practised going to the net and doing little things and it really paid off.
“It was a huge win, a team effort all the way through.”
Cavan went up by two in the 20th minute on a penalty shot by former City striker Mark VanBeek.
City co-coach Dan Burns said they were missing seven players, four to college commitments, one on a honeymoon and one to suspension.
“It really cost us,” Burns said.
“We had guys playing who don’t normally log a lot of minutes for us. They did the best they could, no fault to the, but once we went down a couple of goals guys heads weren’t in the game.”
Cavan struck twice in two minutes to go up 4-0 nine minutes into the second half. Joey Penello scored on a direct free kick and VanBeek weaved his way past several defenders to cap a long run with a strike past Barratt.
Nick Green scored for City with 20 minutes left. He collected a rebound off the post and put it past keeper Jared Foxon. VanBeek capped a hat trick with a penalty kick tally in the final minute.