AC Boise felt like its win was ‘stolen.’ Then a 100th-minute goal restored order
AC Boise and Thomas Amang were not to be denied on Friday evening.
In the space of mere minutes, anger and despair from both AC Boise players and fans alike rapidly turned into jubilation as the home side scored a 100th-minute goal to complete a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Portland Hearts of Pine at Expo Idaho.
This wasn’t just a case of a team scoring a last-minute winner, though.
Just minutes before Amang headed in the go-ahead goal on basically the last touch of the game, he had a goal questionably disallowed that would have given Boise the lead at a much less dramatic time.
“We knew it was coming,” defender Jonathan Ricketts muttered about the win to teammate Jake Crull as the pair sat down for the postgame press conference.
Let’s take it from the top.
Riding a two-game winning streak into Friday night, AC Boise welcomed the Portland Hearts of Pine to the Treasure Valley for a regular-season home match — that’s Portland, Maine, and not Boise’s West Coast neighbors over in Oregon.
The pair of sides sparred back and forth throughout the opening 75 minutes of the game, both coming close but to no avail in a game that was nationally televised on CBS Sports Network. Portland midfielder Diego Gonzalez struck the post minutes before halftime, while Crull had a header cleared off the line by Portland defender Brecc Evans in the 69th minute.
But despite AC Boise having the bulk share of possession in the second half, it was Portland forward Dylan Sing who opened the scoring in the 78th minute. A chipped cross from Portland found Sing unmarked at the back post, who headed into the top left corner for the opener.
AC Boise didn’t take long to respond. Halftime substitute Blake Bodily, functioning more centrally as an attacking midfielder rather than his typical wing position, scored an almost identical goal to Portland’s opener. The Eagle-born forward beat his defender at the back post to latch onto a cross from Amang and head home the equalizer.
“Blake is always running from depth, and it’s really hard for teams to defend that,” AC Boise head coach Nate Miller said after the game.
It was after Bodily’s equalizer when the drama started.
His goal sparked an offensive assault from Boise as Portland sank into a deep defensive mould, with five defenders and four midfielders sitting tight in their own box. AC Boise almost had the winner in the 89th when Portland goalkeeper Hunter Morse spilled a hard-shot free kick from defender Jake Dengler — Boise midfielder Tumi Moshobane sprang on the loose ball, but his shot clanged off the crossbar and away.
Boise finally put a second ball in the back of the net in the opening minutes of stoppage time, sparking wild joy as goalscorer Amang ripped off his shirt and celebrated with nearby fans. That was until the nearby linesman alerted him to the fact that the goal was disallowed for an apparent foul.
However, Miller said after the game he wasn’t told why the goal was disallowed.
“They said it was a foul,” Miller said. “They said it was a foul on number 44, and we don’t have a 44... So that was the explanation.”
With boos and jeers ringing around Expo Idaho at the referees, AC Boise continued to pepper the Portland box with dangerous crosses and shots.
In the final seconds of the game, Amang put his name on the scoresheet for good, just minutes after having it questionably scratched off. A deep free kick from Bodily was knocked down in front of the Portland goal, and Amang was on hand to head the ball in from close range in the 100th and final minute of the game.
“I think just at the end, you have to blend a level of intensity and intent, and just a bit of almost violence to attack the goal, but at the same time you have to have composure,” Miller said.
“Especially when it felt like it was being stolen away from us,” he continued. “I’m just really happy with how they responded, and I’m really happy for Thomas.”
The victory pushes AC Boise into fourth place in USL League One with more games around the league to be played this weekend.
