Northern Durham wins Bull City Cup soccer championship

Northern Durham’s Rigo Villalpandal submarined a goal into the right corner in the 63rd minute to notch the game-winner as the Knights defeated Riverside 2-1 in the championship game of the inaugural Bull City Cup Championship at Durham County Stadium on Wednesday night.

Villalpandal’s game-winner off an assist from junior Danny Martinez came during a soggy second half, when the skies opened up to conclude the six-team, round robin event.

The opener for Northern came in the 5th minute when Gizzie Kolako entered the box and drew a foul against Riverside’s Zach Litzinger. T.J. Milby scored on the subsequent penalty, his third goal of the tournament.

“I hope this is the start of a new tradition,” said Northern coach Mike Tetreault. “We didn’t take as many chances against them in the first half as we could have, which was disappointing. But we did a great job in the final 10 minutes of shutting down chances against them.”

After numerous Northern chances, Riverside scored the equalizer in the 35th minute when Brayan Bustillo fired in a rebound past Knights goalkeeper Carlos Salazar. The sequence started when a free kick sent in from 40 yards by the Pirates’ Blake Berry led to a shot by Eddie Gomez that banged off the right post.

Northern outshot Riverside 8-5 in the first half, but the Pirates had the final four shots in the waning minutes of the half.

The first-ever Bull City Cup featured six teams from Durham competing in a couple of three-team groups in round robin play. Northern clinched a spot in the championship game with victories over Durham School of the Arts (2-1) and Southern Durham (5-2).

In the third-place game, Durham School of the Arts defeated Voyager Academy 3-0. The fifth-place game featured North Carolina School of Science and Math over Southern Durham 4-0.

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 11:11 PM with the headline "Northern Durham wins Bull City Cup soccer championship."