Wednesday night at Cambrian College, the Sudbury Cyclones produced one of their most exciting wins of the season.

By Friday night at the same time, it was all forgotten.

Needing a victory over International FC in their mid-week encounter in order to keep their hopes of avoiding relegation alive, the Cyclones looked headed in the right direction, netting a pair of second half goals (Jaiden Santo, Sam Howard) to secure a 2-0 lead late in the game.

To the dismay of a sizeable crowd on hand, the visitors rallied as relentless pressure produced strikes from Miles Green (82nd minute) and Abdulbasit Badru (90th minute), with a draw of no use whatsoever to the Cyclones.

"The morale was still good," acknowledged Sudbury rookie Aziz Traore, even though only minutes remained in extra time. "Our keeper (Connor Vande Weghe) believed we could do it."

With almost all hope gone, the Cyclones were awarded a free kick from about 25 yards out, as Daniel Alexa sailed a ball into the box and Dominic Parris redirected it perfectly with his head as Sudbury pulled a point ahead of International for 10th place, just ahead of relegation placements eleven and twelve.

A native of Ivory Coast who came to Canada some five years ago, Traore is still acclimatizing himself to the nuances of the game in his new homeland.

"We play small-sided games in Ivory Coast, 5 v 5 or 7 v 7," he said. "It's a lot different. In 11 v 11, you can't just take the ball from your goalkeeper and dribble past everybody and go. In small-sided, you can do that."

On Friday night, both Sudbury and International would close out their 22-game regular season schedules. Facing the second place Woodbridge Strikers (14-2-5), the Cyclones (5-13-3) held on as long as possible, deadlocked in a scoreless affair with 67 minutes in the books.

Unfortunately, Woodbridge would eventually break through as Justin Cicchillo (68th minute) and Anthony Morano (90th) lifted the Strikers to a 2-0 victory. Nothing left to do but scoreboard watch at this point.

International would take their 4-12-5 record on the road, needing a win over St Catharines Roma (6-10-5) with the tie-breaker going the way of the Cyclones. In a contest that featured plenty of scoring, International and Roma were tied at 2-2 after 22 minutes of play - before the visitors struck for a quartet of unanswered goals, taking their final game by a score of 6-2 and sending the Sudbury side back to Ontario Premier League 2 for the summer of 2027.