Red cards, penalties, and last ditch drama the order of the day in exciting BC Provincial A Cup quarter-finals (with video highlights)

If you wanted footballing drama, last weekend’s BC Provincial A Cup quarter-finals pretty much had it all.

Two of the ties were settled on penalties after dramatic late equalisers, with a splattering of red cards thrown in to boot, while the defending champions march on and a league champion staked a claim at lifting their first provincial title.

Before we get into how the quarter-final action played out, here’s a summary of all of last weekend’s results at a glance, in bracket order:

Vancouver United Hibernian (VMSL) 2 – 2 Langley United (FVSL) [VUFC won 4-2 on penalties]
Abbotsford United (FVSL) 2 – 0 Columbus FC (VMSL)

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Coquitlam Metro-Ford Wolves (VMSL) 1 – 1 Croatia SC (VMSL) [CMF won 4-1 on penalties]
BB5 United CCB (VMSL) 2 – 0 Bays United (VISL)

The quarter-final action kicked off on Friday night at Charles Best Field in Coquitlam, with Metro Ford Wolves playing host to Croatia SC in an all-VMSL encounter.

Metro Ford had knocked out VISL champions Vic West in the Round of 16 to earn home advantage now through to the final. But could they make full use of it? They knew they were in for a battle against their VMSL rivals, who had finished two places and two points above them in the Premier Division standings, and fell behind nine minutes in when Emile Saimovici ran through on goal and finished to the far corner to give Croatia an early lead.

Croatia had the better of the first half play and could have gone in at the half with more than a one goal advantage. They seemed content with what they had, forcing Coquitlam to take the game to them after the restart and Metro Ford laid siege to the Metro Ford box after the restart, hitting the woodwork three times but without finding a breakthrough.

As the game headed into stoppage time and with minutes fast running out for the home side, a fairly innocuous Coquitlam foul led to some pushing, a melee breaking out, and punches thrown. The end result was one Metro Ford and two Croatian players being sent off.

Up a man, the home side gave one last push, winning a corner in the 99th minute. As the ball came in, it was flicked on into the six yard area, off the head of Metro Ford goalkeeper Dillan Fogliatio, and into the net for the most dramatic of late equalisers, sending the game to penalties.

Coquitlam were clinical from the spot, burying all four of their penalties, while Croatia saw one saved and one blasted over, and the home side moved on with a 4-1 spot kick victory.

You can see our highlights of the game below and over on our YouTube channel (subscribe!!):

Saturday saw two, more straightforward, quarter-finals!

First up were the defending champs, BB5 United CCB, who played host to the last remaining island side, Bays United, at Newton Athletic Park in Surrey, coming away with a 2-0 victory.

Bays came and put up a solid defensive display, not wanting to get blown out like their 11-0 shellacking by BB5 in last year’s competition. The trouble was they weren’t really able to muster much offensive play till late on in the match and it felt like only a matter of when, and not if, the VMSL champions opened the scoring.

In the end both goals came in first half stoppage time, with Mihai Hodut firing home the opener two minutes into it, beating the Bays keeper at his near post. Connor MacMillan scored from six yards out three minutes later, after starting and finishing a brilliant 13-pass move, and that was that.

You can see our highlights of the game below and over on our YouTube channel:

The first two quarter-finals now set up a very tasty all-VMSL semi-final clash in Coquitlam on Friday night in the bottom half of the bracket.

FVSL champions Abbotsford United stormed on in the top half with a convincing 2-0 home win over VMSL side Columbus FC on Saturday evening. Abbotsford led 1-0 at the half through Connor Hildebrant’s 8th minute opener, with the wee man rising superbly to head home. Connor O’Neill doubled Abby’s lead in the 57th minute and they could have won by more in the end.

They will now head up to UBC on Sunday for another very tasty semi-final, taking on VMSL Imperial Cup champions VUFC Hibernian.

VUFC saw off a spirited fightback by FVSL side Langley United to advance on penalties.

Brody Thomas put Langley ahead in the 15th minute before VUFC tied things up through Asvin Chauhan five minutes later. Hibernian went into the break with the lead when Eric Kim scored a minute before the interval. A minute after the restart, they made it 3-1 through Patrick Braun, but Langley reduced the deficit to one in the 50th minute through Pedro Paz Duarte.

Thomas then grabbed his second of the match 10 minutes from time to tie things up at three apiece and the game headed to penalties, with VUFC advancing 4-2 on spot kicks.

A lot of fantastic action over the weekend in the A Cup, all of which sets up the following interesting semi-final ties this weekend:

FRIDAY APRIL 19TH:

Coquitlam Metro Ford Wolves (VMSL) vs BB5 United CCB (VMSL)
Charles Best Field, Coquitlam – 8.00pm kick off

SUNDAY APRIL 21ST:

Vancouver United Hibernian (VMSL) vs Abbotsford United (FVSL)
UBC South Turf, Vancouver – 3.45pm kick off