Joey Leonetti scored on a scissor kick in the 90th minute to tie the game, and Greg Howes scored in overtime as John & Phil's Willamette Valley Firebirds rallied from a 2-0 second half deficit to beat the Cascade Surge 3-2 in overtime. The match was played on a sunny Sunday afternoon in front of about 125 fans in Corvallis.

From the opening whistle, the Firebirds contolled the flow of play, as they would be for the entire match. The Firebirds did a good job of putting passes together to move the ball into the attacking third, but they never seemed to be able to complete the last pass they'd need to set up a good shot on goal, and their shots were going high or wide. However, the Surge would get on the board first, when in the 22nd minute, forward Jason Iverson brought a cross down in the box, and fired a shot on Firebirds goalkeeper Bryan Hill from close range. Hill made the save on the first shot, but was unable to control the rebound, and Iverson was able to control the rebound and converted the follow-up to put the Surge up 1-0.

The Firebirds continued to control the flow of play, but the Surge scored again 7 minutes later, when Firebirds goalkeeperBryan Hill came out of the box to play a ball that had gotten behind the Firebirds defense. He attempted to head the ball past Surge attacker Jason Aldous, but the header rebounded off Aldous and trickled into the goal to make the score 2-0, which is where the score stood at halftime.

Whatever coach Tony Vandermeer told the team at halftime, it seemed to have worked, because just two minutes into the second half, the Firebirds cut the deficit in half. Pete Cavanaugh took a pass from JP Cappadano, and beat Surge goalkeeper Steve Reese with a solid shot to make the score 2-1 Surge.

Throughout the rest of the second half, the Firebirds kept possession of the ball most of the time, and continued to fire shots on the Surge goal. The Surge had all their players packed in, and put no serious offensive threat in for the second half. As in the first half, the Firebirds were having trouble making the final through pass to free up a forward, and most of the shots were going high or wide. It appeared that the Firebirds were going to suffer their first loss of the season, but a late corner kick was the opportunity they needed.

JP Cappadano took the corner kick from the left side, and played a perfect curling corner kick into the box, where forward Joey Leonetti spun around, and played a perfect scissor kick into the Surge net to tie the score at 2.

In the overtime, the Firebirds continued to control play, and it didn't take them long to score the winning goal. In the 96th minute, midfielder Greg Howes recieved a pss from JP Cappadano, and made a quick change of direction at the right side of the Surge box, which put him in behind the Surge defenders who were completely faked out by the move. Howes was then in the box one-on-one with the Surge goalkeeper, who he beat with a hard shot to the top of the net to give the Firebirds their eighth win in as many tries.

Bryan Hill had five saves for the Firebirds, while Surge goalkeeper Steve Reese had twelve saves in the losing effort.