Ottawa Fury FC coach Marc Dos Santos has talked often about being impressed with his players' character.

Fury's win Saturday night was undoubtedly a character victory as Ottawa scored the 2-1 result against expansion cousins Indy Eleven in a game where the deck seemed stacked against the visitors early.

Sinisa Ubiparipovic scored in the 86th minute, a little over a minute after Indy had tied the match with a late goal from defender Don Smart, to send Ottawa to its first victory in its first multi-goal match of the fall season.

Ubiparipovic finished a nice play that started with a cross into the box by Vini Dantas which was touched to the midfielder by Tony Donatelli.

Dos Santos commended his players for battling back after conceding a tying goal late.

“It was an important (win),” he said. “We missed a PK, we reacted; we scored, Indy tied it and we reacted right away. It's a win of character, it's a win of perseverance and personality.”

Striker Tommy Heinemann scored what looked liked it would stand as the winner on a penalty kick – the second of two awarded to Fury on the night – in a match that was delayed nearly two-and-a-half hours because of lightning. Not only did the match start late, Fury didn't get to train in Indy Friday because flight delays kept the team from reaching its hotel until the late evening.

Dos Santos, who refused to call a come-from-behind draw against San Antonio last weekend a turning point, said again after the win the team wasn't looking too far ahead. He repeated a mantra that the team would treat each match as a “final” and said the squad was looking forward to returning to TD Place to host Tampa Bay next weekend.

“Our fans in Ottawa are very good, they're probably (some) of the best in the league,” Dos Santos said.

“We're just excited to go back home and play for them now.”

Despite the win, the celebration was dampened somewhat as Fury lost defender Drew Beckie late in the first half with what appeared to be a serious ankle injury.

The central defender was running backwards up the pitch and appeared to roll on his ankle. The 23-year-old went down in obvious pain and was taken off the field on a stretcher.

Despite the pain, Beckie waved to the applauding Indy fans as he was helped off.

Beckie's loss forced Dos Santos to change his formation, opting to go with a 3-4-3 with midfielder Donatelli coming into the game.

It was Donatelli who was knocked to the ground in the Indy penalty box to draw the penalty kick on which Heinemann scored, getting Indy goalkeeper Kristian Nicht to dive left before the striker shot low and right.

Ottawa was the better side early in the match, with Heinemann getting a good opportunity in the first few minutes, firing a hard shot that was stopped by Nicht. A moment later, Fury midfielder Sinisa Ubiparipovic was taken down in the Indy penalty box but Nicki Paterson was stopped by Nicht on the resulting penalty kick.

While the Eleven would have had another sellout of 10,000-plus fans Saturday night, the lengthy delay cleared out much of that crowd by kick-off. However, the team's official supporters' group, Brickyard Battalion, remained out in full force.

chris.hofley@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @chrishofley

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