Assault on Battery

Carolina delivers beating to homestanding Charleston

Carolina delivers beating to homestanding Charleston

Mic Smith
The Post and Courier

Carolina’s Caleb Norkus connects on a header Tuesday in front of Charleston’s Luke Vercollone at Blackbaud Stadium.

Soccer is commonly referred to as "The Beautiful Game."

The person that came up with that slogan obviously didn't envision the Charleston Battery's play Tuesday night against the Carolina RailHawks.

With its playoff hopes still very much in doubt, the Battery came up with one of its worst overall performances of the season in a 3-0 loss to the Carolina RailHawks in front of a crowd of 3,463 at Blackbaud Stadium.

With five games left in the regular season, the Battery, which is 7-2-2 in its last 11 home games, dropped to 8-10-5 (29 points), but remained in eighth place in the USL First Division. The RailHawks improved to 6-10-7 (25 points) and are in 10th place. The top eight teams will advance to next month's USL First Division playoffs.

Connally Edozien scored all three goals for

the RailHawks, including two in the first half, as Carolina dominated the action for most of the match.

"We're obviously disappointed with the result," said Charleston Battery coach Mike Anhaeuser. "We went back to the way we were playing defense earlier in the season, when mental mistakes just killed us. We just were not mentally sharp defensively tonight. (Carolina) couldn't have gotten more than four quality scoring chances and scored three goals. That's pretty efficient, but we were as much to blame on some of their goals."

In its first season of existence, the RailHawks have struggled against the rest of the USL First Division, but not against the Battery. The RailHawks have won all three matches against Charleston, outscoring the Battery, 6-0, in the season series.

"They're very good defensively," Anhaeuser said. "They play with two blocking midfielders in the back and their back four defenders have been pretty strong all season. They don't push forward and are happy with a 0-0 draw, so any goal they get is a bonus. Unfortunately, this season they seem to be getting all the goals against us."

It was Charleston's sixth game in the last three weeks and the hot and humid conditions lately seemed to finally catch up with the Battery.

"We had some tired legs out there," Anhaeuser said. "It's been really hot the last couple of weeks and we've played some intense games. I think everything just kind of caught up to us."

The Battery will embark on a four-game road trip next week, including three games on the West Coast, before finishing up the season on Sept. 7 at home against Puerto Rico.

"We've got to put this game behind us and move on," Anhaeuser said. "We can't go out West with a bad taste in our mouths. Every game from here on out is big for us."

It took just six minutes for the Carolina RailHawks to get on the scoreboard on Edozien's first goal of the match. Midfielder Chris Carrieri served the ball into Edozien inside the 18-yard box. Edozien controlled the ball, spun and blasted a shot past Charleston keeper Dusty Hudock for the score.

The RailHawks pushed their advantage to 2-0 on Edozien's second goal of the first half. Edozien got the ball at the top of the 18-yard box and hit a low, hard drive past Hudock for the score with just four minutes left before intermission.

Carolina extended its lead to 3-0 on Edozien's header off a corner kick. Kupono Low served a beautiful ball into the six-yard box that Edozien redirected past Hudock for the score in the 67th minute.

Headers

--Battery co-founding owner Nigel Cooper watched his last game as the team's president. Cooper, who served as team president from 1999-2007, will move to Argentina at the end of the month.

--Striker Byron Alvarez missed the match, serving the second game of a two-game suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards.

--Midfielder Gordon Chin was back in the lineup after missing Saturday night's game with California serving a one-game suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards.

--Midfielder Ian Fuller, who scored the game-winning goal against California in stoppage time, missed the game due to an undisclosed illness.

--Midfielder Stephen Armstrong received a yellow card in first half and is expected to be suspended by the USL First Division for an accumulation of yellow cards.