Bonivital Claw Back A Draw In Thunder Bay Men’s Home Opener

It has been a long-time coming for the Thunder Bay Chill’s return to men’s action at TBayTel Field. After bowing out of the USL2 playoffs against Peoria City in 2024 and then not returning for the 2025 campaign, the mood surrounding their home debut in the Prairies Premier League was dampened in the ’90+5 as the Bonivital Flames forced a 1-1 draw on the afternoon.

In front of an adoring crowd cheering on this new iteration of the 26-year-old club, the Chill went straight to work with their strong offence to try and set the tone of the match early on. Despite having only two regular season games under their belt as a roster, the Chill have been carried in the goals column by striker Nick Phyllis who has scored the only two goals of the season earlier in May.

Despite their strong lineup – which includes talent from their USL2 days – the side has struggled to find mesh so far and this was touched on by forward Alex Iossa post-game as something needing improvement. “The chances we have got to convert. You have got to score more than one goal a game and we haven’t scored more than one,” said Iossa. “You can’t just keep leaving a game with one goal, one goal. We need two to seal the game.”

This contradiction in the Chill’s existence came to fruition once again on Sunday as their speed and prowess was on display early. In the first 15 minutes of the match, the Chill had already sent two wide off of corners by Nika Gaeini while Phyllis was triple-marked at times due to the threat that he posed to the visitors defence. Ultimately though, Iossa was the one to mark the first home goal of the season on a beautiful solo effort.

A great run on a two-on-two by Phyllis alongside Iossa opened up space as the former fed the latter down the middle. With Bonivital’s centrebacks of Stefansson and Dauda a bit apart, Iossa took advantage of the gap and split the D. Pressured by a pincer movement from Stefansson and Dauda alongside a charging keeper in Jacob Tsai, Iossa dissuades Stefansson and steps around Tsai to tuck it home for his childhood club.

Following the game’s opener, the hosts maintained this pressure through the first half as they tried to force errors on the part of the Flames. Though, as hinted at by Iossa, despite their numerous chances, none were converted, in large part due to fantastic performances by defender Tomiwa Olumide. The man of the match from Bonivital’s meeting with the Sask. Excel was even praised by his Head Coach post-game as a reason for the result.

“He has got a good future and he’s just an amazing player… I believe that if we hadn’t lost tonight he’s got a big part in it (sic),” said Bonivital lead man and former Paris FC and San Jose Earthquakes midfielder, J-B Pierazzi. “The whole back line fought hard together and that’s what we praise. We want to be a strong team and we saw it tonight and I’m really happy for Tomiwa (sic).“

The rest of the match went on with Thunder Bay retreating further and further into a defensive posture due to a rejuvenated Winnipeg side that came out for the second 45. With the pressure coming on from all fronts, Yann Doumbia and substitutes Daniel Mann and Emmanuel Babalola would all nearly find the equalizer past Chill keeper Joey Jones if not for sheer luck or masterful saves by the netman.

But then came the moment sure to have made every highlight reel in the nation had it been in the professional leagues. What initially seemed like a harmless foul taken by Gaeini near centre field in the ’90+4, an in-swinging free kick by Stefansson caught a gust of wind and soared high above both the wall of players and the jumping, outstretched hand of Jones, into the top right corner of the Chill net to force a points split. Watch below to see the magic in full. The final whistle would come shortly thereafter, sealing the result.

Obviously disappointed, Coach Marco Colistro spoke to several key items that he feels his side needs to fix before they take to the field next, items that cost them all three points on Sunday. “We need to find insurance goals is key from a game management perspective… we need to be able to see the game out and complete it,” reflected the head coach. “It’s obviously disappointing. We want to win at home… We want to try and find a way to work through it.”

When asked about his side’s propensity for fouls and more undisciplined moments – including a confrontation that led to a booking Chris Pike and later on a yellow for Iossa for delaying the game – Colistro said that this was something they’ve looked at. “We’ve been talking about discipline all year. Not just on fouls and cards but also with our defensive assignments and being more solid. We need to address this.”

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With the two sides now tied at five points and in second place, they both have quite the ways to wait until they can try and leap frog the other in match week four. The Flames will face off in a Winnipeg Derby against Forza Academy (0W-0D-1L) at home on June 12 while the Chill enter game two of their four-game homestand as they host the Saskatchewan Excel (2W-2D-1L) on June 13.

Header Photo Credit: James Mirabelli / Thunder Bay Chill