HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Harrisburg City Islanders defeated the Los Angeles Blues (who play their home games in Fullerton) 3-2 in Friday night’s USL PRO National Division Semifinal at the Skyline Sports Complex. Andrew Welker scored twice for Harrisburg, Chase Harrison made five saves in goal, and the club, down a man, played superb defense for the final 24 minutes to close out the game.
In a game crackling with playoff intensity, both sides came flying out of the gates. Harrison and his Blues counterpart, Oscar Dautt, had plenty to do in the first 10 minutes. Harrison turned aside a Peter Byers effort in the third minute, and denied both Byers and Carlos Borja in quick succession in the 10th. Dautt stifled Harrisburg’s Sainey Touray two minutes in and Welker three minutes later.
The visitors got on the scoreboard first. In the 11th minute, Los Angeles midfielder Josh Tudela took a Jonathan DeLeon pass, cut inside from the right, and beat Harrison low with his left foot to make it 1-0.
City Islanders center back Andrew Marshall nearly equalized eight minutes, pounding a 25-yard free kick that Dautt did well to steer over the crossbar. Dautt then made the save of the night in the 31st minute, stretching to his right to turn away a Brian Ackley volley.
Three minutes later Harrisburg found the tying goal. Touray fought to keep the play alive on the right side of the penalty area and lofted a ball across the goal, where Welker rose above two Blues defenders to nod it past Dautt to even to score at 1-1.
The City Islanders took the lead in the 39th minute on Welker’s second. A Blues defender headed clear a Harrisburg corner, but the ball went straight to Welker. The product of local Cumberland Valley High School, who scored eight times in his rookie season, made no mistake, rifling it high past Dautt for a 2-1 lead.
Los Angeles wasn’t done yet, however. The scrappy visitors bagged their second goal in first-half stoppage time, when Erlys Garcia headed home a Cesar Rivera free kick, sending the teams to the intermission tied 2-2.
Harrisburg found the eventual winning goal early in the second half. In the 52nd minute, Ackley flicked a long ball into the path of midfielder Brian Ombiji, who took a couple of touches before deftly chipping a shot over Dautt for a 3-2 lead.
Tensions began to run high shortly thereafter, with five cautions coming over the ensuing 14 minutes. The last of those, in the 66th minute, resulted in the ejection of City Islanders midfielder Jason Pelletier, who had already been cautioned in the 62nd minute. Harrisburg would have to defend its lead with only 10 men.
Harrison preserved the lead in the 69th minute when he denied Rivera at the near post, and got some help from veteran midfielder David Schofield in the 74th minute. L.A. midfielder DeLeon, who had assisted on Tudela’s first-half goal, nearly found one of his own with a header off a corner kick, but Schofield was planted at the far post to clear it away.
Welker nearly sealed his hat trick in the 78th minute when he forced a turnover and rounded Dautt, but he couldn’t quite steer his shot into the empty net. It would only have been icing on the cake, though, as the City Islanders moved on with the 3-2 win.
Harrisburg will travel to Rochester next Friday night to face the Rhinos in the National Division Final at Sahlen’s Stadium at 7:30 p.m. The Rhinos defeated the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 4-0 on Friday night.
Soccer Notes: The win was Harrisburg’s first in the postseason since their 2007 title run…This was the first home playoff game for the City Islander since 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment