PEORIA IL (July 3, 2022) – Peoria City, coming off their first victory at home on Friday against FC Manitoba, took on Thunder Bay at Shea Stadium for one final time in their inaugural season.
For the second straight game, Peoria City had a fantastic start to the match. Forward Justin Freitas received a beautiful pass from captain Marco Valero and buried it into the back of the net in the 7th minute to give Peoria City a 1-0 lead. Later in the half, Marco Valero had the ball at the top of the box and sent it into the bottom right corner, however the assistant referee determined during the celebration, that F Justin Freitas was offsides, even though he didn’t make contact with the ball, therefore disallowing the goal. The rest of the half didn’t see much action, ending the half at 1-0 in favor of Peoria City.
The second half was much of the same for Peoria City, throughout the course of the half they had 7 corner kicks. However it was midway through the half that Peoria City crossed a ball into the box and F Adria Sabater headed the ball off the crossbar and it appeared to go into the back of the net, however the referee deemed it no goal. The ball was kicked out of bounds for a corner kick for Peoria City, Valero took it for Peoria City and this time F Gevork Diarbian headed the ball once again off the crossbar and into the net, but no goal was signaled, keeping it a 1-0 game. That didn’t matter however, as in the 73rd minute F Tim Ennin, fresh into the game, extended Peoria’s lead with a beautiful strike into the back of the net. In the dying seconds Peoria City was able to get one final goal. Tal Segev notched his 1st of the year, striking the ball into the lower left corner of the net and beating the Thunder Bay GK.
The whistle blew as the ball entered the net, signaling a 3-0 win for Peoria City, capping off a 6 point weekend, and a clean sheet for Peoria City GK Rimi Olatunji.
Peoria City extended their 2nd place lead over Thunder Bay, improving to a (6-2-3) record (21 pts) with one game remaining. While Thunder Bay falls to (3-2-3) 12 pts with 4 games remaining. Peoria City’s next and final game of the regular season is Saturday, July 16th @ Des Moines.
