Chilli get wacked...
The Classics shrugged off the inept performance from last week and set about their task of entertaining Chilliwack with vigour. The first shot of the game came in the third minute when Chris Arcari shot the ball over the bar. C. Arcari was also involved in the next incident which happened in the 9th. minute and it was a strange one; it happened at the south-east end of the field. This area of the field is renown for it's peculiarities. It is the same area that Dave Moore once famously drifted out of and Pat Rohla passed the ball to him - or was he abducted? It is the same area that David Breen was running the line and he was standing on the imaginary line that is situated 28 yards away from the official one. C. Arcari inexplicably passed the ball directly to Moore's feet. It was a superb ball which brought another skill out of his armoury but with one small shortcoming, the fact that Moore was not even on the field of play. When asked to explain himself he declared in a tant, "It was because you had a red top on!" This statement makes it all the more alarmingly eerie as the Classics were playing in white and the opposition were in red! In future, this particular area of the outfield will now forever be known as The Twilight Zone!

The Classics took the lead in the 10th. minute of the game after Rohla threaded a ball through the eye of a needle to Jimmy Butler. Butler did not hesitated and snapped the ball to the left of the keeper to open the scoring. Chilliwack almost got the equaliser in the 20th. minute when they made a breakthrough and an attacker was left one-on-one with Judd Boxtart. Boxtart came up big and spread himself like Marmite on toast to beat the ball away to safety. He shrugged it off and confessed, "It was a simple save at waist level, but it would have been a superb stop by their goalkeeper if it would have been at the same height." Butler cut a groove down the right flank in the 24th. minute and whipped over a very good centre which went across the face of the goal and was kicked out for a throw in by the Chilliwack keeper. Two minutes later a goal came courtesy of the same keeper who made the mistake of trying to dribble the ball past Butler. To say he put it on a plate would be an understatement as he also supplied cutlery, crockery, condiments, etc. Butler is not one to shirk responsibility so he went in for the tackle which bounced off him and went straight into the goal. It sould have been 3-0 on the half-hour mark when Warren Crowley did everything right - he beat three men and shot for goal - except that his shot was a gentle tap directly into the keeper's hands. It would have been a difficult save for the Classics stopper as he would have had to get down to it. The teams left the field with the scoreline at 2-0.

The referee was giving some strange decisions and he awarded a free kick to the visitors just outside the box early in the second half. He paced out the ten yards but he lost count and it ended up a baker's dozen by the time he had done. A shot was sent goalwards but it just scraped the top of the crossbar and went away to safety. In the 51st minute C. Arcari was the instigator of a good right sided move which ended up at Gino Nonni who sent a looping cross to the back post where W. Crowly was on hand to power the ball home and also make up for his first half misdemeanour. Nonni was on hand with another assist in the 58th. minute when he put Butler through with another race to goal. The outcome was inevitable and the ball ended up nestling in the top corner. The goal completed Butler's sixth hat-trick for the club but this time he was smart. He later admitted that many things were going through his head but the underlying thought was that he was providing the food on the day and would be thus exempt from paying for beer. His after match comment was, "I wouldn't have scored otherwise."

Another right flank move in the 61st. minute resulted in Gordie Macklin floating over a cross which Butler rose to, but he couldn't get enough power on the header to do any more damage. With 15 minutes remaining another mistake by the visiting keeper sent the ball directly to Butler who was foraging on the left. Butler had the foresight to notice that the goal was unguarded and he hit a superb lob which gave him his fourth goal of the game and put the hosts 5-0 to the good. This was a great recovery game for the Classics who put together an enthralling display of skill and passion where every man did his job efficiently; the defence were particularly strong against a very good Chilliwack team. The only down side to the result was that the home side had that much possession that Chilliwack are considering reporting the club to the monopolies commission... Congratulations are also in order to Jethro who now knows what is shut-out is.

The club wishes to thank Bryan Gudjonson of Save On Foods, a subsidiary of the Overwaitea Food Group, for organising the after match refreshments. The steaks were well appreciated by the players, of which Larry Thorlakson, Jimmy Butler, Judd Boxtart and David Breen in particular, needed building up after the game.

Stats
MWG: J. Butler
Crap Award: P. Rohla (see above right)