Needing points to remain in the playoff picture, South Georgia Tormenta found themselves down by a goal late in second half stoppage time when Pedro Fonseca was able to redirect a cross through traffic into the back of the net for a 1-1 draw against Northern Colorado Saturday night.

Down to their final seconds, defender Curtis Thorn sent a cross from the right side into the box where it was headed away to Preston Kilwien 12 yards from the endline on the left. Kilwien sent a low, hard cross back into the middle where Fonseca was able to get a foot on it and get it through the Hailstorm for the equalizer.

“In the last minute of the game it’s more instinct than anything else,” Fonseca said after the match. “There’s not much positioning. There’s not much tactics. You’re trying to get a goal.

“Preston played a very good ball on the floor that is a very difficult ball for their back four to defend,” Fonseca continued. “I was at the PK mark and just trying to get a touch on it and I’m glad I was able to.”

The goal was Fonseca’s fourth consecutive regular season match with a goal and gives him six on the year in League One play.

Tormenta manager Ian Cameron said the last second goal showed the grit and determination of the team.

“No matter what, you always look for character out of your group. You always look for the fighting spirit, the determination to fight until the very last second of the game and on this occasion fighting to the very last seconds of the game got us a result.,” 

After a scoreless first half that saw Tormenta maintain possession for much of the half, the second half saw more back and forth play as Northern Colorado created more counter attacking opportunities. 

Tormenta would go up a man in the 67th minute when Haruki Yamazkai received his second yellow card of the night for a foul on Jackson Khoury, giving South Georgia a man advantage for the final stages of the game.

Despite the advantage, it would be Northern Colorado who would score first. In the 78th minute, the Hailstorm would find themselves on a counter attack with Jake Dengler finding himself defending Ethan Hoard one-on-one in the penalty area.

“I just knew to keep him to his right side and as soon as I got in there and poked the ball away and he dove. The ref gave him a PK and you can’t really do anything about it there,” Dengler said. 

Marky Hernandez would place his penalty in the lower right corner to give Northern Colorado the 1-0 lead.

“Their penalty, I don’t think it was a great call,” Cameron. “I think it’s quite obvious that it wasn’t a penalty but those things can happen. And the reality is we caused some of the issues that led to that moment in the box where a moment could present. We’ve got to look ourselves in the face a wee bit for that one.” 

Cameron said it was important to get a result tonight, even if it wasn’t a win, for the fans in attendance. 

“I think the boys felt like they owed it to all the young kids who are in the crowd really screaming and trying to cheer them on,” he said. “I think the team felt a wee bit of ownership that (the fans) deserved something at the end because we didn’t put the goalkeeper under pressure and that’s something we need to continually look at,” he said.

“We showed great effort and great character to end up getting that goal to tie it up,” Dengler said. 

The draw moves Tormenta to 17 points on the season through 16 games. That puts South Georgia in eighth place, which would be the final playoff spot. However, the 16 games played is the most in the league, with all the teams chasing Tormenta having played 15 or fewer.

Tormenta has six regular season games remaining and Cameron knows what it’s going to take to earn a spot in the playoffs.

“The reality is we’re going to have to win three of them and get two more results. We probably need to win four. So we’re going to have to win four of six. You win four of six and we’re probably in. If you don’t then you don’t,” he said. 

“It’s now or never. We’re going to push the home games and rely on the support that we have,” Cameron said. “It’s not the largest volume, but these people care. The care factor of the people that we have here is masavie and we want, for them, to try to get results and these boys showed they are going to do everything in their power to try and get that.”

Tormenta will have a week off before taking on One Knox in the final group stage round of the Jagermeister Cup on Sunday, September 1. South Georgia can’t win their group, but can still advance to the knockout stage as the three group winners advance along with the team that scores the most goals among the teams not winning the group. However, it would be a tall task for Tormenta as they currently trail Union Omaha by five goals for the wildcard spot.

Tormenta will have another week off after that before resuming regular season play on September 14 when they travel to Washington to take on Spokane Velocity.

“You’ve got an ownership, you’ve got a front office and you’ve got a coaching staff that have a plan for this (time off) and it’s going to be full guns blazing to get better,” Cameron said.