Two Late Goals Propel Hammerheads Past Riverhounds 3-1

In the first half of the match on Friday night the Wilmington Hammerheads dominated possession, but failed to find the back of the net. Their best opportunity came from a nice flick-on by Andres Cuero that left Richard Jata open for goal, but his shot sailed just over the crossbar. The Pittsburgh Riverhounds remained on the defensive side of the ball for the most of the half and came away with little success at all going forward.

In the second half, the Hammerheads stepped it up a notch and found themselves attacking the Riverhounds rather easily once again.  Just like their first match, the Hammerheads came away with an early goal in the second half by Andriy Budnyy on a nice pass from Luke Mulholland. The goal came in the 56th minute and from then on the game really opened up.

Richard Jata was subbed out for Alex Grendi around the 65th minute and 15 minutes later the Riverhounds got their equalizer.  Wilmington was clearly dominating the possession battle up until this point, but after a great cross and header combination in the 79th minute, the game was tied 1-1.

Justin Evans, Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, fed up for most of the game, was cautioned in the 82nd minute after the Riverhounds were whistled for a foul at midfield. The following free kick was sent into the box, but a failed clearance by the Riverhounds found the foot of Paul Nicholson just outside the box on the right side. He took a few dribbles and blasted a shot to the near post low and hard for what would prove to be the game-winner. At this point it put the Hammerheads back up 2-1, but there was still some more action left to be seen.

In the 92nd minute the Riverhounds goalkeeper came all the way up for a corner kick, but a quickly cleared ball by the Hammerheads fell right to Chris Banks who took the ball up-field in a hurry.  He had an open teammate near midfield with a sure chance of putting a shot on goal. Unfortunately an unsuccessful touch gave the ball right back to the Riverhounds, without any shot attempt on goal.

Not even a minute later the Hammerheads put the nail in the coffin.  After a couple consecutive shot attempts by Jyler Noviello, one off the post, an unmarked Alex Grendi tapped in a free ball near the 6 yard box to get his first goal of the season. The Wilmington Hammerheads remain undefeated for the season, and at home(2-0), but the true test will come next weekend when they travel to Virginia to face a deadly Kickers squad. Attendance for today's game was just under 3,000.

Scoring Summary

WLM: Andriy Budnyy (Luke Mulholland) 56'

PITT: Jeremy Deighton 79'

WLM: Paul Nicholson 83'

WLM: Alex Grendi 93'

Cautions

PITT: Kyle Veris 84'

The next game is scheduled for Saturday, May 7th against the Richmond Kickers, with kickoff set for 7pm. The winner of this game will be the only remaining undefeated team within the American Division, unless the Kickers lose tomorrow night against the Dayton Dutch Lions. It should be a great game regardless, with the winner of the match coming away as the only undefeated team in the entire league besides the Los Angeles Blues.