A goal in the last seconds of the match gave Ottawa Fury FC a 2-1 victory over Toronto FC II in preseason action.
The lone goal for the Young Reds came in the second half off the boot of Sal Bernal.
The Fury opened up the scoring in the first half. TFC II trialist Mitchell Taintor made an erroneous pass that was intercepted by the Fury’s Paulo Junior.
Junior was in alone and was rewarded a penalty kick as Taintor tripped him up from behind.
Alex Bono, who got the start for TFC II, guessed correctly but Gerardo Bruna’s shot was perfectly placed into the bottom left corner to give Ottawa the lead.
In the 60th minute a total of seven Kia Toronto Academy players were substituted into the match. With Shaan Hundal already on the pitch, a total of eight Academy products were going up against the 2015 NASL Championship runners-up in the second half.
The young Academy players were quite impressive and received praise from Head Coach Jason Bent.
"I was quite pleased with the effort from the young players that came in, especially in the second half,” said Bent.
Not too long after, midfielder Sal Bernal equalized.
After receiving a pass from Aidan Daniels on the left side, Bernal cut to his right and hit a powerful shot that the Fury keeper got a hand to but it wasn’t enough to keep it out.
Unfortunately for the home team, Ottawa picked up the game winner in the dying moments of the match.
Dennis Chin met a cross from the left flank and headed the ball into the upper right corner of the net, beating Bono.
“At the end of the day we’re not happy we ended up losing the game right in the dying seconds,” said Bent following the match.
“We felt we put in enough to get a tie or possibly a win, but it is preseason, so if we’re going to make mistakes it’s better that we make them now,” he added.
Toronto FC II Scoring Summary
TFC II – Sal Bernal (Second Half)
Toronto FC II Lineup
Alex Bono; Bubacarr Jobe (Steven Furlano* 60’), Mitchell Taintor^ (Nikola Stakic* 60’), Skylar Thomas © (Robert Boskovic* 60’), Andrew Dias* (Leonard Sohn* 60’); Adam Bouchard (Liam Fraser 60’), Martin Davis (Aidan Daniels* 60’), Malik Johnson (Nicholas Osorio* 60’); Raheem Edwards (Sal Bernal 60’), Richie Ennin* (Matthew Srebly* 60’), Reshon Phillip* (Shaan Hundal* HT’)
*- Kia Toronto FC Academy Player; ^- Trialist
