Puerto Rico rallies past Charleston

All the games and all the travel finally caught up to the Charleston Battery.

Puerto Rico scored three second-half goals as the Islanders rallied to beat the Battery, 3-1, before a crowd of 4,652 at Blackbaud Stadium.

The Battery, which lost for the first time since early May at home, dropped to 8-4-3 (27 points) overall, but remained in first place in the USL First Division. The third-place Islanders improved to 7-5-3 (24 points).

In the last two weeks, the Battery has played four games, including two against Major League Soccer teams in the U.S. Open Cup, and Seattle, the defending USL First Division champions.

The Battery was coming off an emotional 3-1 victory over FC Dallas on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup, a game they played in Frisco, Texas.

Charleston coach Mike Anhaeuser wasn't about to make any excuses after the game.

"Did we have tired legs in the second half? Probably a little bit, but Puerto Rico played Portland Thursday night in Portland and had to travel across the country to get here," Anhaeuser said. "We played well in the first half. We attacked them, got some scoring chances, but couldn't get that second goal to put them away. We made a couple of mental mistakes in the second half defensively and they ended up in the back of our net."

Charleston keeper Dusty Hudock was a little more succinct in his assessment of the Battery's performance in the second half.

"We were terrible," Hudock said.

After a physical first half that saw hard tackles by Charleston Stephen Armstrong and James Marcelia, the two teams got into a minor altercation as they made their way to the locker rooms.

Charleston nearly scored in the 18th minute on Patterson's attempt. After a nice buildup, Lazo Alavanja got the ball in the middle of the field and slid it across to Patterson on the left side. Patterson burst past the Islanders defense and took a shot from just inside the penalty box that beat Puerto Rico keeper Bill Gaudette. But just as the ball was about to cross the goal line, Marcelia booted it out of bounds to end the threat.

The Battery finally scored in the 25th minute on Alavanja's fourth goal of the season. Midfielder Darren Spicer got the ball on the right side and slid it into the middle to Alavanja. The former Indiana University All-American volleyed the ball past Gaudette for the score.

Patterson had another excellent scoring chance in the 54th minute when Patterson got the ball inside the 18-yard box on the counter attack. Gaudette came off his line and made a strong challenge on Patterson's sliding volley to end the threat.

"If Randi can get either of those goals, Puerto Rico probably is hanging its head and we've got the three points," Anhaeuser said.

The Islanders tied the game at 1-1 on Kendal Jadeosingh's goal in the 70th minute. After a free kick from 40-yards out, Noah Delgado ran down the ball just before it reached the goal line. Delgado crossed the ball to Jadeosingh, who blasted it past Hudock for the score.

The Islanders got the game-winner on Cristian Arrieta's penalty kick in the 80th minute. Fabrice Noel made a strong run down the left side and got inside the six-yard box. Hudock came off his line for the save, but referee Mark Kadlecik called Charleston defender Nelson Akwari for a foul for tripping Arrieta behind the play.

The Islanders put the game away on Jonathan Steele's goal in the 87th minute.

With Charleston taking chances offensively, the Battery defense was caught up the field. Fabrice slid the ball over the Steele, who took one dribble and whipped a ball past Hudock for the score.