Orlando City Secures Home Field Advantage For Play Offs With Convincing Win Over Harrisburg
Orlando City Soccer (16-2-4, 52 points) gained revenge over Harrisburg City Islanders (8-9-6, 30 points) tonight at a sold out ESPN Wide World of Sports. The Lions never like to make life easy and so it proved tonight as they had to come from a goal down to beat the team that gave them only their second defeat of the season last week at the Skyline Sports Complex in Pennsylvania.
The game started quickly as both teams looked to assert themselves over each other and after Corey Hertzog (pictured above left) had a point blank shot saved by Harrisburg’s keeper Nicholas Noble, Robbie Derschang was able to slip a shot past Miguel Gallardo, in the City goal, for the game’s first goal in the 6th minute. Lions midfielder Darwin Cerén (pictured above right) equalized two minutes later as his 40 yard free kick curled into the net as Noble was caught napping trying to set his defensive wall.
Orlando then took the lead in the 18th minute as Corey Hertzog set Trinidad international Kevin Molino (pictured above) free in the box and he made no mistake with a neat chip over Noble to give Orlando a 2-1 lead. It was Molino’s 15th goal of the season and he has now tied former Lion and current Sporting KC star Dom Dwyer and Jose Angulo of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds for the USL PRO single season goal scoring record with six matches remaining.
After the game Molino said: “What’s most important for me is the team. If any records come after that, I will accept them but for now I just want to be focused on what we have to do to win the league.”
Orlando sealed the win in the 89th minute when Cerén bagged a brace as he split two Harrisburg defenders before firing home past the diving Noble.
Head Coach Adrian Heath was happy with the win after the game but was still a little critical of his team as he commented: “If there’s one little thing I can pick at, it’s the fact that we didn’t take enough of our chances. At 2-1, there’s still a game on. The game is never won. You’re one mistake away from dropping a couple of points but fortunately Darwin got the third one and that saw us through. It would have been a travesty if we had not have taken all three points as we created a lot of chances and we played some really good football.”
Tonight’s win extended City’s USL PRO home unbeaten streak to 17 fixtures and secured home field advantage for the Lion’s first 2014 USL PRO playoff match scheduled for September 13.
Tickets are available for purchase at www.OrlandoCitySC.com or 855-ORL-CITY.
More photos at www.FloridaLeisurePhotography.com
