Undermanned Electric City Football Club Men's Team Lose 2-1 In Inaugural Trent Severn Cup; First Home Defeat

The undermanned Electric City Football Club (ECFC) coughed up two goals in the last ten minutes for a 2-1 loss against the Simcoe County Rovers in the inaugural Trent Severn Cup on Saturday.

The match would be decided by penalty kicks if it was a draw after regulation. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

ECFC head coach Randy Riberio was suspended for two games for accumulative yellow cards. Striker and team-leading scorer Jordan Brown was suspended for three games for a ‘league incident’ according to Riberio.

"Jordan's a leader on the field for us,” said Ribierio. “He's our leading goal-scorer and so we definitely missed his presence today but we have full trust in all the players we have on the squad to the jobs we needed to do and I thought overall today, we were the better team but unfortunately we fell asleep for the last ten minutes."

The cup was created in mid-June to help spark both clubs in their first year with League1 Ontario.

“Both franchises have shown a great desire to compete at the highest standards and strive to participate at the highest level in the Canadian Soccer landscape,” said John Copp, HDSA president. “The Districts want to help kick off these franchises' inaugural season and provide the groundwork for what we expect will be a long (friendly) rivalry between two top League 1 Ontario Clubs.”

The cup winner is determined by the combined score of both men’s and women’s teams. The women drew to a 1-1 on June 15.

Electric City got on the board first with a goal from Mohammad Reza Nafar in the eighth minute off a soft corner kick pass. Reza Nafar juked through two Rovers and had his shot sail by several defenders and the keeper on the left-side bottom corner.

Simcoe keeper Richard Gomes protested the corner-kick call to no avail as he made a save on a ball going wide of the net. The official claimed the ball went out of bounds and was last touched by a Rover for the corner kick.

“I didn't expect the ball to come to me,” said Reza Nafar. “I was kind of in shock when I saw the ball and it was just instinctive what I did and I saw an opportunity to shoot and I did.”

Simcoe had an uncontested shot in the box after forcing an ECFC turnover in the 32nd minute. Electric City keeper Quillan Roberts made a diving save to keep it 1-0 into the half.

Simcoe got a free kick in the 58th minute but had their shot sail wide of the net as the first quality scoring chance of the second half.

ECFC had their own free kick in the 65th minute but Reza Nefar had his shot go high and wide as the team’s first quality chance of the half.

The lone goal-scorer tried to make amends forcing a turnover shortly after the missed free kick. He forced a turnover and made a centring pass to freshly substituted Benjamin Vyfshaft but just went out of reach for a one-timer goal.

Simcoe stormed back late in the 86th minute with a goal from Jacob Grant to tie it 1-1. He zipped it past a diving Roberts from a cross pass in front of the net.

Vyfshaft received a centring pass during extra time but could not beat a diving Gomes and kept the game tied.

Justin Yarde clinched it for Simcoe County as he beat Roberts over the to after a midfield turnover by ECFC.

This was the second consecutive men’s home game where they allowed a goal in extra time in the second half to lose their lead.

“Lack of concentration in the last ten minutes,” said Rob Clarke, ECFC interim head coach. "Two mistakes cost us goals and we can't let that happen against a good Simcoe team. We'll remember this one. Hopefully, we can learn from this moving forward."

The men’s next game is against Darby FC on Friday as their second-last road game of the season.

Sunday’s women’s game against Vaughan Azzurri was postponed due to weather conditions 23 minutes into their match. Their final regular-season game will be concluded at a later date.

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