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Darby And Vaughan Settle On 2-2 Draw After Tale Of Two Halves

By League1 Ontario staff, 09/10/16, 6:00PM EDT

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A much changed Vaughan Azzurri showed up to play Darby FC on Friday night, and were put through their paces after the hosts went two up after goals from Selah Hopkins (38') and Delanee Judd (67').

But the Azzurri demonstrated great determination and located a pair of late goals off from Anna Karpenko (79') and Maia Torelli (90' + 5') to secure a draw at the final whistle. 

"Yes it was good from a neutral's standpoint," said Vaughan coach, Jorden Feliciano. 

"Two nil down with fifteen minutes left the opposition scores two goals to tie it, one with the last kick of the game. From a neutral's standpoint it was a fantastic finish."

"To be fair, I think throughout the game the girl's had a good control of possession," he continued. "We were trying to knock the ball around."

"I think the last fifteen to twenty minutes, of the five subs I made, three of the girls were born in 2002 and two of them scored. I am very happy for them."

Darby head coach Mirco Schroff was understandably let down by the result.

"I think if I were to start at the very end, when you get scored upon in the ninety-fifth minute to make a scoreline of two each, it is heartbreaking," he said. "It wasn't just heartbreaking for the players themselves but for everyone else that wanted to reward themselves." 

"We had a good performance in the first half, but in the second half the performance slipped a bit and then you are trying to overcome the adversity you are facing when things are not going your way," he added. 

"I thought we did a decent job until the last ten or fifteen minutes. We were up two nothing and then, once again, we got the jitters. We got drawn out of positions, and didn't stay as composed and collected as we would have liked to have seen it at the end."

With Vaughan's women's program currently playing in various late season key matches and finals across leagues and tournaments, the program was truly tested for its depth and resiliency.  

"All of the girls were U15 OPDL players, and this truly goes to show the strength of the program," said Feliciano. "Hopefully now, as Vaughan has never had a strong women's program, we've got to the good point with [Technical Director] Carmine Isacco really trying to grow the program from the grassroots level up." 

"Isacco has also been getting success with his York teams, which is in turn getting us more success with our League1, our U21. Along with our women in the Ontario Cup final on Saturday, I think this really speaks to the strength of the program and with that we are able to do these call-ups with some assurance."

Schroff opted to highlight the performance of two individuals, one of which a goalscorer on the day, to find a progressive element in the result.

"I thought Selah Hopkins and Tori Chia have definitely been one of the highlights this season," said Schroff. "They have been exceptional and have managed a double workload with the U16s and League1."

"We made sure that we didn't overload them, with regards to their growth and development as individual players, but it's the end of the season now and you can see it has taken a toll on their body."

"Selah came off at the end exhausted and tried to manage her physical health, but overall I think yes she was present and she is always a threat if she's on her game. She's still in that stage of trying to figure out who she can really be as a player and to become more mature and more consistent with these performances, but I think she scored six or seven goals this season."

"That's a really good accomplishment as a 16 year old in a league like this, making a name for herself."