THUNDER BAY – Sports – St. Louis, Missouri – Last night the Thunder Bay Chill clinched their 6th consecutive playoff spot. Tonight, they picked up their 5th Heartland division title in the last 6 years. This is the earliest that the Chill has ever clinched either a playoff spot or the division.
The feat was accomplished this evening when the Chill defeated the St. Louis Lions 3-2 at the Tony Glavin Soccer Complex in sweltering 100 F heat and high humidity. The Chill opened the scoring in the 14th minute when Dominic Roberts headed home his third goal of the year off a free kick taken by Jose Altimirano. It seemed like the game was put away when Sullivan Silva slid a pass over to Juan Velez who made no mistake in making 2-0 for Thunder Bay in the 62nd minute.
However the Lions were not done for the evening at all. They struck back with a goal only 5 minutes later when Jamie Lovegrove struck a low ball past Stephen Paterson to deny him his shutout and made the score 2-1. Paterson picked up his seventh shutout in Saturday night’s game when the Chill blanked the Lions 1-0. Juan Velez picked up his second of the game and Sullivan Silva picked up his second assist as Silva sent another pass over to Velez who neatly slotted it home to put the Chill up 3-1 in the 75th minute. The Lions however did not quit and again made it a one goal game in the 82nd minute when Lovegrove got his second of the night.
“We are very pleased with our accomplishments so far, but we have much more to do before we celebrate” said Chill head coach Tony Colistro. “It was a tough weekend on our players, who had to endure two days of high heat and humidity in St. Louis” said Colistro. Both teams used all of their 6 substitutions during the game in getting tired legs off the field, as St. Louis travels to Kansas City to play the brass on Tuesday and the Chill head to Springfield to play a friendly with the Demize and then to Des Moines for two games against the Menace next Friday and Saturday night.
The Thunder Bay Chill plays in the Premier Development League (PDL) which is comprised of 73 teams throughout North America and is in their 13 season of play.