PICTURE: Luke Rankin’s winning goal and hat-trick led Hamilton City to victory with just seconds remaining to the final whistle Saturday
Luke Rankin just beat the final whistle by one second to complete a hat-trick while scoring the winning goal to give Hamilton City a 4-3 victory over Serbian White Eagles in the second game of a Canadian Soccer League double header at Centennial Stadium Saturday, and in the opening game, FC Vorkuta scored a come from behind 5-2 win over Brantford Galaxy.
It was an end-to-end struggle for both teams with Arsen Platis opening the scoring for Hamilton at the 19 minute mark, Rankin increased the lead to 2-0 six minutes later, the score at the break.
Forward Milos Scepanovic struck for Serbian White Eagles to cut the lead to 2-1 at 54 minutes and Rankin found the net for his second goal and a 3-1 Hamilton City lead at 67 minutes.
Defender Branislav Vukomanovic scored a picture goal for the White Eagles at 78 minutes, heading just inside the left post from a cross by Scepanovic to close the gap to 3-2 in favour of the City. Serbian White Eagles’ Igor Nedimovic, who entered the match as a substitute at 83 minutes, drove the ball inside the right post out of reach of Hamilton goalkeeper Alexandar Nicolic just seven minutes later to make what appeared to be a game-saving 3-3 draw until Rankin headed in the winner, to be followed immediately by the final whistle for a 4-3 victory for the Steeltown side.
In the opening match, Brantford Galaxy midfielder Slavko Knezevic scored from the penalty spot following a foul in the box at 19 minutes for a 1-0 lead over FC Vorkuta, and Knezevic struck again at 41 minutes, a 2-0 lead at the interval.
The Brantford Galaxy lead going into the second half evaporated quickly with Vorkuta goals by striker Mykola Temniuk at 51 minutes, midfielder Pavlo Chomomaz at 64 minutes, Iaroslav Solonynko at 66 and 74 minutes, and a fifth and final goal by Valerii Yarmosh at 76 minutes, a 5=2 score at the final whistle.
Games scheduled for the coming weekend:
Sat Sep 12 Centennial Stadium 5 pm Hamilton City vs Scarborough SC
Sat Sep 12 Centennial Stadium 7 pm FC Vorkuta vs Serbian White Eagles