The wait ultimately was not worth it for the first-place Switchbacks and their fans.

A red card against Colorado Springs midfielder Davy Armstrong left the hosts down a man in the final six minutes, including stoppage time, and the visiting Sacramento Republic FC rallied for a 3-3 tie Friday night.

Colorado Springs forward Luke Vercollone struck for two goals in the first half and factored into the third when his hard shot led to a rebound for Chandler Hoffman, who scored his first for the Switchbacks in the 78th minute.

But Sacramento battled back and made it 3-2 only five minutes later on a score for Ivan Mirkovic, setting up the decisive final minutes.

“We had that win in our pocket but we let down just a little and that’s all it takes,” forward Aaron King said. “We made some little mistakes, mental errors really, and it cost us.”

Tempers flared in the 86th minute between the teams, who were playing twice in seven days, and the resulting pushing and shoving led to a red card for Armstrong.

Down a man, Colorado Springs went into a defensive shell but was unable to clear the ball out, leading to the tying goal by defender Mickey Daly in the 91st minute for the defending United Soccer League champion.

A last-second chance for the Switchbacks went awry and Sacramento escaped.

“It feels like a loss,” Vercollone said. “We made mental mistakes and couldn’t clear the ball.”

The game started after a 93-minute rain and lightning delay but many of the 3,152 fans stuck around for the 8:23 p.m. start.

They weren’t too happy at the start and some were angry at the end as boos rained down on the referee.

Sacramento struck quickly when Thomas Stewart took a pass into the middle, turned and fired a high shot into the left corner of the Switchbacks net from about 30 yards out for a 1-0 lead only 99 seconds in.

But Colorado Springs (12-7-3) began to assert itself with an aggressive counterattack. Mike Seth went up for a header and drew a yellow card on Nemanja Vukovic who pushed him away from the ball.

That set up Vercollone for the penalty kick and he cashed it in with a high hard shot under the crossbar to tie the game at 1-1 in the 21st minute. It was his seventh PK goal in seven attempts this season.

That tally invigorated the crowd and the Switchbacks kept pressing forward.

Vercollone would thrill the crowd when he took a pass into the right half of the Sacramento box, raced past one defender and chipped the ball over goalkeeper Patrick McLain (nine saves). He collected the bouncing ball a few strides later and ripped a low shot into the net in the 38th minute for a 2-1 edge going into halftime.

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Paisleyhockey@gazette.com