Peace Arch United survived a tough preliminary round test with a penalty-kick win over ICSF Inter in men's Provincial Cup preliminary round play at South Surrey Athletic Park Saturday.

Representing the Fraser Valley Soccer League, Peace Arch more than held their own against an Inter squad that finished fourth in the reputedly superior Vancouver Metro League before advancing on spot shots.

"It was a good, hotly contested game," said Peace Arch coach Mark McQueen. "There were good, physical battles and there were periods of wide open football as well. In general though, those periods we just for short amounts of time while the rest of the game was a typical Provincial Cup game with neither team giving up much in the way of chances."

Peace Arch carried the play for most of the opening half and were unlucky not to have the lead at the break. Ryan Horvath and Ben Hempel both had golden scoring chances foiled by the Inter goalkeeper.

In the second half, Inter took control of the play but despite spates of dominance, were unable to create many quality scoring chances.

When regulation time elapsed, the two sides continued to play a pair of 15-minute overtime periods. With both teams tiring noticeably, scoring chances began to appear more frequently. Inter was unlucky not to score off a shot that struck the inside of the Peace Arch goalpost while at the other end of the field, two United scoring chances ended up in the hands of the Inter keeper.

The game was then decided on penalty kicks. Peace Arch goalie Gyrish Kaniah gave his team a huge boost when he came up with a big stop on the first Inter kicker and the second Vancouver chance sailed wide. Inter scored on their next three attempts but Kaniah's early heroics were enough as Hempel, John Collins, Luke Ash and Mike Evans all scored on their kicks to lift Peace Arch to the win.

Peace Arch will now advance to play the VMSL's Metro Ford Wolves in the opening round of Provincial Cup tourney on April 18. McQueen said the two teams are not strangers to each other despite playing in different leagues.

"We put them out of the Provincial Cup last year in the quarter-finals," he said. "They haven't forgotten that and they were out on Saturday having a good look at us. We expect they will be trying to make up for last season's disappointment when we play them again in two weeks time."

Meanwhile, Surrey United now knows their dance partner for the opening round of Provincial Cup play. The Columbus Clan topped the Abbotsford Mariners 2-0 in preliminary round action Saturday and will now advance to face Surrey in a rematch of last month's Imperial Cup semifinal, won 2-1 by Columbus.

"They've beaten us three times this year already," said Surrey club president Martin Foden. "I know from when we were a top of the table team, we never wanted to play a team that we had already beaten three times. It's one of those things where at this level, the teams are all relatively close so it's hard to beat a team four times. And in cup play all the games are tough and generally the scores are pretty close."