USL PRO Game Report
Saturday, June 14, 2014
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Colin Falvey, Dane Kelly and Haviel Cordoves each scored to lift the Charleston Battery to a 3-0 victory against the LA Galaxy II in front of 3,373 on Saturday night at Blackbaud Stadium.
“We got on our front foot and didn’t allow them to take their one chance,” said Battery head coach Mike Anhaeuser after the match. “We kept creating chances and we kept the pressure on them. We didn’t let them sit back and play at all tonight. We got three points tonight and we need to go up to Charlotte and get the job done next week.”
After 25 minutes in which neither team could get a serious chance on goal, Charleston took the lead on a header from defender Falvey. After being awarded a free kick, midfielder Andre Lewis stepped up to take the kick from the left side. Lewis sent a cross into the box and Falvey met the ball with his head, sending the ball across the goal mouth into the left side of the net to give the Battery a 1-0 advantage.
Andre Lewis had the best opportunity for Charleston to extend the lead in the first half just seconds after the game restarted following the goal by Falvey. After the Galaxy II made an errant pass that rolled out of bounds, Lewis received the throw-in and made a cutting run through the Galaxy II defense before sending his shot just inches over the crossbar.
The Battery needed just five minutes to extend their lead to 2-0 in the second half. In the 50th minute, midfielder Jared van Schaik controlled a ball in the Battery’s defensive half and played a perfect pass through the defense into their attacking half, which forward Kelly caught up to just outside of the box. After one touch, Kelly shot the ball past the keeper from 12 yards out to increase the Charleston lead.
Cordoves finished the Galaxy II off in the 85th minute with a spectacular goal from inside the six-yard box. After controlling the ball near the goal line on the right side, Cordoves made one move to beat his defender and cut back to fire a shot from a tough angle past the Los Angeles keeper into the top right corner of the net to increase the Battery lead to 3-0.
The Battery defense was able to prevent Los Angeles, which entered the game as the highest scoring team in USLPRO, from having a single shot on goal to earn a clean sheet.