Top-seed Cowichan FC’s head-swivelling 4-3 extra-time victory over defending champion Saanich Fusion on Sunday at Royal Athletic Park was 100 years in the making. And worth the wait.

The centennial Jackson Cup championship game, for Vancouver Island Soccer League supremacy, was worthy of the occasion and one of the best and most exciting finals played. That’s saying something, considering the half-century Jackson Cup all-star team introduced at half-time to the more than 1,000 fans, included World Cup players and other multi-capped former Canadian national team players and pros.

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There were two goals at the death. Chris Peereboom scored at 90 minutes for Fusion to tie it 2-2 and send it to extra time. There were three goals in the hectic added half-hour, capped by Kevan Brown’s header in the injury time of overtime to win it for Cowichan FC.

“This is the latest I’ve scored a goal in a game . . . to have three goals scored in extra time and then to get the winner of those is amazing,” said Brown, the Salt Spring Island product who played in the PDL for the Victoria Highlanders.

Other than going to shootout, you can’t score any later than Brown did.

Cooper Barry looked to have won it in extra time for Cowichan when he unleashed a deflected 30-foot cannon of a shot for the 3-2 lead against his former team. But then a Peereboom header just slipped in to tie it 3-3, setting the stage for Brown’s game-winning heroics.

“I think both these teams will go far in the Province Cup [upcoming B.C. championship tournament],” said Peereboom, the Juan de Fuca product named MVP of the Jackson Cup final.

The centenary championship game was played in slick conditions on a damp day. It affected play with some slippage, but there were still many fine moves on display. If you can’t play soccer in the rain on the Island, then you shouldn’t be playing, said the gathered greats.

“I used to love playing in the rain and sliding,” said George Pakos, the 1986 World Cup player for Canada, who was among the 16 Jackson Cup greats introduced to the packed grandstand at half-time Sunday.

Cowichan liked it, too. Making its fifth championship game appearance in six years, Cowichan won its third Jackson Cup in that stretch.

“There were so many ups and downs and twists and turns in this game,” said veteran Cowichan backline stalwart Tyler Hughes, the only member of the 16-player Jackson Cup half-century team still active in the VISL Division 1 level.

“Every time we thought we had it won, they kept coming back on us,” added the 34-year-old, who played pro in the USL and Sweden after a U.S. collegiate NCAA all-conference career that earned him induction into the Coastal Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

“But we were full of heart and desire.”

Hughes pointed to Steve Scott as the player he was happiest for. This was the veteran striker Scott’s first Jackson Cup title in two decades of VISL Division 1 play for several teams.

“This is my third final and first win . . . you can’t put into words how this feels,” said Scott.

Scott gathered his family on the pitch to join in a picture with him and the Jackson Cup.

It will be a memory to last the next 100 years.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com