The final weekend of the GPSD regular season was looming over the TAFC clubs going into the second weekend of November. With the holidays coming up on the calendar and visions of the region’s first official snow watch rumored for later this week, visions of championship games danced in the heads of some of the clubs while others hoped for great results to end their fall campaigns before looking forward to the spring season.
FC Portlandia was hoping to secure a berth in the GPSD Division 2 championship match and guaranteed promotion into Division 1 for the spring term as they prepared to battle Sporting Commando. They had played their previous four matches on turf, so the switch to the grass at Columbia Park had both sides struggling to adjust to the different surface. Anthony O’Reilly took a great pass from Devin Chapman in the 30th minute to put FCP up 1 to 0 and they held the lead going into the halftime break. Nabil Zerizef doubled the lead quickly into the second half before Sporting Commando broke into the scoreline with a well placed free kick. Zerizef and O’Reilly notched additional goals later in the second half as FC Portlandia held on for a 4 to 2 result. The win secures their berth in the GPSD D2 championship versus SDFC Eastburn on November 20 at 12 noon at Gladstone High School. The two sides met earlier in the year with SDFC getting a 2 to 0 win, but both teams have secured promotion to D1 for spring.
North End United was the other club hoping to win a championship berth, making it all the way to November as the only club in GPSD D4 that had yet to lose a match. A win in their final regular season match versus Oregon National Guard FC would keep the losses at zero and give them an expected championship berth depending on results from other fixtures. Playing under the lights at Delta Park’s Strasser Field, NEU got some early bad news when striker Rem Evert had to leave the match with an ankle injury, and they ran afoul of the offside violation repeatedly all match. However, Sam Nicholas picked up the scoring slack with a hat trick while goalkeeper Chad Nelson held strong against a relentless attack as NEU defeated the Guard FC 4 to 2. In an odd bit of scheduling, NEU will be asked to play a midweek fixture versus Ronler Hacres on November 17 at LaSalle HS at 8 PM that was originally slated for October 9 but was postponed. Ronler Hacres was in first in GPSD but lost to Mayday on November 13 thus making the cancelled match necessary to play because Mayday and NEU are currently tied in total points. Depending on the result, it could be the same two teams meeting on November 20 in the GPSD Division 4 championship at 4:00 PM.
Rose City Athletic was playing their final match of the fall at Sherwood’s Snyder Park against the Fiji Islanders. While the RCA boys were floating about the middle of the table standings wise, they wanted to end the season on a strong note against a very good side. The fall conditions were great for soccer, but RCA found themselves struggling to hold possession although they had chances to score all match. Jose Lopez got his sixth goal of the season, but the Fiji Islanders were able to tally three to win the match 3 to 1 to end RCA’s season. RCA ends the 2010 fall season with a 5 win, 5 loss record putting them smack in the middle of the table, while Bryan Boen ends up as RCA’s top scorer for the fall with 11 goals. Knowing the brains behind RCA, I can imagine the managers are up to some secret strategy for the next term of soccer, or they could just be interested in trying to eat all they can eat at Izzy’s.
TAFC has experienced an up and down season due to injuries that have kept their numbers down, so they were happy to simply have a sub available in their final fixture against BDFC at Gladstone High School. The first half displayed a wonderful defensive effort by TAFC to hold their opponents scoreless while Jesse Wagner converted a first half penalty kick to put them up 1 to 0 at the half. The second half was temporarily delayed because of lighting issues on the field, but once play resumed,BDFC finally found space to work and scored three goals in the second half while holding TAFC scoreless. TAFC had their chances, including a wonderful run by Wagner that was saved by the BDFC keeper that was very much Troy Perkins like, but in the end, TAFC fell to 1 win and 9 losses on the year. The offseason for them will be extra special, as the team will undergo their long awaited rebranding project which promises to be something to behold.
