Morning Star Staff
It will be Penticton United and Kelowna Marketplace IGA in the Capri Insurance Men’s 45+ Soccer League final.
The championship game will be played the week after the Thanksgiving weekend at a venue to be announced later.
Penticton, who won the league title at 20-1-1, doubled fourth-place Lake Country 4-2 Monday night at Dale Meadows Park in Summerland, while second-place IGA smothered third-place Leko Precast Camels 4-0 at Beasley Park.
The wind in Lake Country played a big part in the IGA-Humpbacks game, blowing strongly from south to north throughout the entire 80 minutes.
IGA played against the strong wind in the first half but still pressured the Camels’ defense with numerous missed chances until Rich Woodhouse converted from a scramble at 30 minutes to make it 1-0 at the half.
“For the first 15 minutes, we were all over them and then they took it to us,” said Camels’ defender Ron Krause. “They outplayed us, they deserved to win. (Keeper Dave) Dutcher kept us in it. He robbed those guys. It could have easily been seven or eight.”
With the wind at their backs, IGA came out strong in the second half and poured on the pressure. A 30-yard screamer for Dante Zanatta at 60 minutes deflated the Camels and then super-sub Steve (ole Gunnar Solskjaer) Heiss entered the game at 70 minutes and converted two chances.
His first came from a great combination move with a precise through pass from Geoff Greenwell slicing the Camels’ defence open allowing Tony Gonzales to calmly square the ball for Heiss to rifle it into the top corner past the helpless Dutcher. Heiss’s second was a simple six-yard tap-in after a great Jimmy Kruiper run to the byline.
IGA played well as a team but Donny Brown stood out as the Man of the Match with an incredible workhorse display in the centre midfield “engine room.”
Steve Nader played a solid game in net for IGA and his shutout was well earned.
In Summerland, Lake Country received a yellow card in the first half but the referee wrote down the wrong number of the offender. Mike Ley, who scored once, got a yellow in the second half, and the ref gave him a red card for a second yellow.
“But it was not Mike that got the yellow in the first half so we got a red card when we should not have,” said Lake Country veteran Greg Kilmartin.
Steve Cox also scored for the Lakers, while Zeke Peschada connected on a nice free kick around the Lake Country wall for the prettiest Penticton goal. Other United goal scorers were not reported.