After trailing by a goal at three separate times in their opening round game of the Provincial A Cup, Langley United’s Premier men’s team took their first lead and held on for a wild 4-3 victory over Port Moody on Saturday.
The game was played at the Port Moody Town Centre and was a rematch of the Pakenham Cup final last month, which was also won by Langley United.
Port Moody scored in the 10th minute, the 60th minute and then in the 95th minute after the game went to overtime.
But Langley answered back each time with Andre Costa scoring the first three goals — including in the 85th minute to force overtime and again in the 112th minute — before Lee Ellis gave United the lead for good in the 121st minute.
The decisive goal came off a Mitchell Rohla corner kick.
“We knew we were in for a battle today,” said coach Rob Keam.
“The credit, as usual, goes to the players and the team that showed up today for us.
“Another fantastic attitude and overall excellent work rate on the day. The players never say quit … and found a way to battle back and pulled us through at the end of the day.”
The win puts Langley United through to the Provincial Cup quarter-finals against Surrey United. That game will be played at Willoughby Community Park on the weekend of April 26/27.
And this was one of two Langley United squads which moved through to the final eight of their respective Cup tournaments.
Langley United Sparta is through to the next round of the Provincial B Cup where they will host Richmond Athletics.
Sparta advanced with a 4-1 win over Westcoast FC Celtic on Saturday at Willoughby Community Park.
Karl Peters scored in the 20th minute off a penalty kick but Celtic tied the score in the 60th minute when a Sparta clearing attempt was blocked and bounced over the goalkeeper and in.
The game would go to overtime with Nathan Rubuliak scoring once and setting up another and Adam Peters and Mark Peters scoring the others.
“We played a tough team who battled hard from start to finish,” said Mark Peters, the team’s player-coach.
“We took advantage of their side tiring in overtime and finished like we should have during the first 90 minutes.”
“The team as a group really came together after their lucky equalizer to grind out the win.”
Langley United had two teams in the Provincial B Cup, but their other entry, Dynamo, lost 4-1 to Bacardi FC on April 6 in Burnaby.
Langley United’s U21 team lost 4-2 to Guildford FC to be eliminated from their Cup tournament.