Ukiah 3, Long Creek 3

LONG CREEK – A pair of tired soccer teams battled to a 3-3 tie when Long Creek squared off against Ukiah in the Mountaineers Homecoming match on Friday, Oct. 18.

The Mountaineers (3-1-1), nearly pulled the win out and were holding a 3-2 lead before Bruno Carvalho scored on a free kick with seven minutes left to earn the Cougars a tie.

“This was a tough game for us and we just got tired,” Long Creek coach Mike Wilson said. “We just had two substitutes available to play, and one of them wasn’t at 100 percent.”

Amyr Lima opened the scoring with a goal at the 11-minute mark of the first half to give the Cougars an early 1-0 lead before the Mountaineers’ Ben Corley tied the game with a long shot from outside the scoring box 13 minutes before halftime.

Corley’s shot tipped off the outstretched hands of a leaping Ukiah goal keeper Sam Shin and into the net to tie the score.

“We had a tough game on Thursday against the Grant Union junior varsity, and the kids were really tired,” Ukiah coach Shane Harris said. “This was where you find out what they are made of and they’re just human beings. I thought we played very hard and put it on the line today, but we just didn’t come out on the top end.”

Jorge Sanchez tallied the first of his two goals in the second half at the 46-minute mark to give the Mountaineers a 2-1 lead.

Sanchez took a pass from Max Corley and blasted a shot which hit the left goal post and ricocheted behind Shin and into the net.

Ukiah was able to fight back and answered when Lima found the net off an assist from M.C. Ganbolt six minutes later to tie the score once again.

A free kick by Sanchez at the 56-minute put the Mountaineers ahead 3-2 and as the match wound down, Ukiah was able to put a lot of pressure on Long Creek’s goal keeper Denis Kurylenko.

The continual pressure finally resulted in a hand-ball in front of the Long Creek net which set up Carvalho’s match-tying score.

Ukiah had a total of 21 shots on goal in the match, and Long Creek had 16.