To fall just short of fame

This was playoff weekend for Victor's soccer team. They'd finished the regular season in first place, but the playoffs were unseeded: just a round-robin of all the teams in the division followed by a final game between the top two. The team won the first game yesterday, but then were held to a 2-2 draw, and dropped the last game of the day to a literal last-minute goal.

Today, they started tied for third place in the standings, needing to win both remaining round-robin games to advance to the final. The early game went very well, with a final score of 6-1. The second game was crucial to both teams: the winner advanced and the loser went home. The club was possibly a bit concerned about bad blood between the two teams, as the last time they'd met in the regular season, the game was abandoned during the second half. The club's head referee took centre for the game, but aside from a couple of verbal incidents, the game was clean and well-played by both sides (no cards were shown, and a smaller than average number of free kicks were awarded).

Whitby Purple came back from a 2-goal deficit to win 3-2, setting up a return match in the final against the only team they'd lost to in the round-robin.

The final game kicked off in a light rain, and the rain continued through pretty much the entire game. At the half, Purple was clinging to a 2-1 lead, but protection started to break down during the second half, with Whitby Navy winning by a final score of 3-2.