Written by Dave Standish

The rain changed the venue, but not the roll.  Foothills FC followed up its three road victories with their strongest performance of the 2018 season, a 5-1 win over their closest rivals, the TSS FC Rovers in a game that was moved indoors to the Foothills Fieldhouse in Calgary due to inclement weather in Okotoks.

Moses Danto led the way scoring four goals (two on either side of halftime), all highlight reel candidates, as the team found every opening and exploited every weakness of the Rovers to stretch their lead to 13 points in the PDL’s Northwest division standings.

Danto said he just needed to get into the right positions and his teammates did the rest, “They do everything, I just finish. If I’m not scoring I’m not doing my job.”

His first came on a quick response to an early goal from the Rovers from Daniel Sagno. Danto said their quick response, his first, was crucial.  “It was a wakeup call, we were slow and put ourselves in a deep hole and that’s exactly how we climbed out.”

Another critical moment in the game came shortly before halftime with the score 2-1 as Foothills FC keeper Marco Carducci was involved in a heavy collision with the Rovers’ Matteo Polisi and a penalty was awarded.  Carducci was shaken up on the play after taking a knee to the chest.  He remained down for a number of minutes and required attention from the training staff.  He was able to continue and promptly stepped up and saved the penalty (his second on the season) with a diving save to his left, preserving the lead.

“Marco is one of the best young keepers in Canada,” said coach Tommy Wheeldon. “He’s badly hurt and he picked himself up and made a big save, his second (penalty save) of the season.  Carducci was subbed out by Nathan Ingham in the second half as a precautionary and Ingham preserved the lead and kept a clean sheet the rest of the way.  

The second half was taken over by Danto with an early diving header to extend the lead and a brilliant left footed strike on a long ball over top (could be a goal of the year candidate) to put the game out of reach.  Danto leads all scorers in the NW Division with 9 goals on the season and is second in the entire PDL, only one goal back of the leader.  

Danto’s day wasn’t quite done as his final act was sending a great ball across the Rover’s goal to teammate Sergio Camargo who finished it off for the last goal of the match.

In addition to the firepower provided by Danto, Wheeldon pointed out another key to the win was the balance and shape shown at the back, as has been their defensive strength throughout the season.  “There are many ways to win a football match, you can win it with goals, and today we put a bundle of them away, but we haven’t conceded many goals and that’s because we take pride in our defensive position, the fullbacks commit to protecting the goal.”

The team has improved its record to 8-1-2 and has a well earned break for the long weekend. They then travel to Oregon for two road matches against Lane United and the Portland Timbers U23 on July 6th & 8th.

The next home game is the regular season finale vs the Seattle Sounders U23 on July 14th.  Be sure to get your single game tickets at www.foothillsfc.ca/tickets/ or at the gate.