Rochester Rhinos News Release -- www.rhinossoccer.com
Friday, June 1, 2012
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Rhinos will be ending a stretch of six matches in 15 days when they return to Sahlen’s Stadium on Saturday night to host the Richmond Kickers. Rochester is 1-2-2 in all competitions in their first five matches of the stretch, and they are 0-1-2 in USL PRO play. The Rhinos dropped their first points of the season to the Dutch Lions on May 18th, and then lost their first match of the season 1-0 on May 25th in Harrisburg against the City Islanders. 
“We’ve had a lot of matches in a short period of time.” Rhinos coach Jesse Myers said. “We knew this would be a difficult way to start the season when we looked at the schedule, but we’ve gone 5-1-1 away from home. Before the last two weeks we were 6-0 in league play, so we need to get a couple of results to get that confidence back. We also need to go out and try to score some goals, which is something that we’ve really only done once or twice this season.”
Despite their recent rough patch over the past two weeks, the Rhinos are still in second place in the USL PRO standings. They are three points behind Orlando City, and two points ahead of Charleston after their victory on Thursday night in Pittsburgh. The Battery also still have a match in hand on the Rhinos. Rochester continues to have the best defense in the league, and they are now in a four way tie for the third-best scoring record in USL PRO.
The Kickers are entering the match with a 2-2-4 record, and they are currently sixth in the USL PRO standings. The Kickers are level with Wilmington on points, but they lead them by two in goal differential. Sixth place is significant in the table this year because only the top six teams qualify for the postseason. Richmond in tied for third place in the league with 10 goals scored. Christopher Agorsor has three goals and one assist in only five matches. He is fourth in the league in goals and seventh in the league in points. Former Rochester Rhino Matthew Delicate is 10th in USL PRO with six points in eight matches. The Kickers are 1-0-3 away from the City of Richmond Stadium this season.
Myers was an assistant coach with the Richmond Kickers for 15 seasons. They had a 212-105-57 record in the regular season during his time with the club, and qualified for the playoffs in 14 of Myers’ 15 seasons. Richmond played in seven USL finals and won championships in 2006 and 2009.
“Whenever you spend 15 years with an organization there’s going to be a strong connection there.” Myers said. “There’s going to be a lot of familiar faces on the field and on the sideline that I haven’t seen in a while. At the same time they’re here to compete against us so there’s still a job that needs to get done.”
Tickets for the match with Richmond are on sale now by calling (585) 454-KICK, by visiting rhinossoccer.com, or by visiting any of Ticketmaster’s retail locations.