Saturday, Sep. 12, 2009

RailHawks hurdle Puerto Rico in standings after win

CARY — Two shots, two goals in 12 minutes was all the Carolina RailHawks needed to defeat Puerto Rico 2-1 in a battle for second place in the USL-1 standings.

Forward Gregory Richardson found himself all alone in the box when he netted a goal in the 2nd minute thanks to a Joseph Kabwe through ball.

Ten minutes later, Richardson fired a shot that deflected off Andriy Bundyy, who was flashing through the box, and into the goal.

"We have to get into the game from the first whistle and throw everything we have," Kabwe said. "We have to put the game on them. So we did that and fortunately we got some goals. It was a good feeling. We stood up like 'You're not going to come back in this one.'"

With the win, the RailHawks (14-5-10) have moved into second place in the USL-1 with 52 points, trailing only Portland's 55, with just one game remaining in the regular season.

It marked also the 10th home win for the RailHawks, the first time a Carolina team has reached that mark

"That was a strong team we played against, and in the first half we played really, really well," Rennie said. "We've played really well [at home] all season ... We've got a chance to win 11 games at home. If we do that, it'd be amazing."

The win was the franchise's first-ever over Puerto Rico. The Islanders got a goal in the 66th minute from Nick Addlery. Adderly also nearly tied the game in stoppage time, but he whiffed on an uncontested header off a corner kick.

Newcomer Matt Delicâte, announced earlier in the day as having been loaned to the team before the August's USL-1 roster freeze, nearly had a goal in his first action as a RailHawk.

Delicâte, who led the USL-2 in goals and is coming off a USL-2 championship with the Richmond Kickers, was denied by goalkeeper Justin Myers.

"We won the championship two weeks ago with Richmond," Delicate said. "They say the goal at the beginning of the year is to win a championship and Carolina has put themselves in position to do that."

Delicate's debut was shortened to only 11 minutes after leaving with a cut above his eye, but he will be with the team for the remainder of the season.

Puerto Rico (50 points) drops to third place with the loss and Charleston (49 points) is also in position to claim second before the year runs out. Charleston owns a tiebreaker in head-to-head match-ups with Carolina and has two goals remaining.

The RailHawks' season finale is on Friday, at home versus Montreal.