USL PRO Game Report
Sunday, June 22, 2014
PITTSBURGH -- The Richmond Kickers scored twice in the opening 15 minutes to go onto a 3-1 victory against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Sunday afternoon at Highmark Stadium. Shay Spitz opened the scoring for the Kickers, while Matt Delicate scored his 10th goal of the season in the second half to put the game away and move Richmond into sole possession of second place in the league standings.
The Kickers didn't waste any time taking the lead as they scored goals in the fourth and 11th minutes to take command early.
Shay Spitz drilled home a rebound to give Richmond the lead. The play started at midfield when Rob Vincent turned to play a ball back, but he slipped and lost possession of the ball. Delicate took the ball for a run deep into the left side, then took a hard shot right at Riverhounds goalkeeper Hunter Gilstrap, who knocked the ball away, but the rebound bounced toward the center of the box and Spitz came through unmarked to blast the ball into the open net.
Things only got worse for the Riverhounds in the 11th minute. Richmond's Sascha Goerres sent a long pass toward the box from behind the halfway line. As the ball was lined in toward the right side of the penalty area, it appeared Riverhounds defender Brian Fekete was running to cover his mark on the outside, but the ball deflected off the back of his head and toward the goal. Gilstrap came out of the goal to play the ball, and was caught out of position, and the ball bounced in, crossing the goal line.
"I called for the ball, and maybe it appeared that Brian thought it meant to head it back to me," said Gilstrap. "I was expecting him to leave it, let it bounce on through. I'll take some blame on that. That's something to be shared all around. I'm the one that makes the calls back there, so that's on me."
Trailing 2-0 early, the Riverhounds struggled to generate any formidable scoring opportunities for the remainder of the first half. A shot by Kevin Kerr from 25 yards in the 19th minute was right at Richmond's goalkeeper, Joe Willis. Jose Angulo tried to look to cut the lead, and made a nice run down the left side, but his cross was deflected away.
"I felt like we did something really positive in Harrisburg with that nil-nil draw (last Saturday), but today was tough," said Gilstrap. "Not sure the reason why we didn't come to play today, but we definitely didn't put forth our best effort. The fans don't deserve that -- and that's not good enough of an effort from us. Hopefully we can go back to the drawing board, and make some positive changes going forward."
With his team trailing 2-0, interim head coach, Niko Katic, in a rare move, brought four substitutes into the match at the beginning of the second half. It seemed to give the home side a lift they needed.
After a few previous close chances, Angulo took advantage of some space, took a few touches to his left, and drilled a shot from 27 yards in the 54th minute to cut the Kickers' lead to 2-1.
The Riverhounds continued to bring more pressure, outshooting Richmond 9-1 in the second half, but it wouldn't be enough as the Kickers only needed one more quality shot on goal to secure the victory.
Richmond responded in the 68th minute, as Delicate used every inch of his 6-foot-3 frame to get up and knock a header in from cross served by Henry Kalungi past Gilstrap, that gave Richmond a 3-1 lead that would hold up.
The Riverhounds return to action at Highmark Stadium on Saturday, June 28 for their first meeting with the Dayton Dutch Lions. For tickets and the latest up-to-date information on the Riverhounds, visit www.riverhounds.com.