Greenville, SC – A Fort Lauderdale own goal in the final minutes of Friday night’s match helped the Greenville Triumph Soccer Club extend their undefeated stretch to five matches, as they earned a 1-0 win at Legacy Early College in West Greenville. The win took Greenville to 35 points on the season and back in to third place in the League One standings.
Greenville pushed the pace of play during an aggressive first half, creating a number of chances on goal. Midway though the first 45 minutes, Triumph co-captain Aaron Walker nearly put Greenville on the board with a left-footed rocket that crashed against the left post and ricocheted away from goal.
The second half told a similar story, with Greenville outshooting Ft. Lauderdale 2-1 but failing to find the net. The match seemed destined for a draw in to the three minutes of stoppage time, but late sub Don Smart had other ideas. Smart picked up a pass on the left slide, flying towards the box. He fired in to the front of goal, catching a Ft. Lauderdale defender who pushed the ball in to the net for an own goal and a Greenville lead with seconds to play.
Triumph SC held on for a massive home win, padding their playoff position and taking some of the pressure off of next week’s road match.
“We could’ve been 3-0 up n the first twenty-five minutes,” saiid head coach John Harkes. “Some of those games go away from you when you think you had them. But our resilience tonight was huge. We compromised that team. We put them in difficult spots to to defend and we didn’t give up [in stoppage time].”
Greenville heads to the Cornhusker State to face Union Omaha on Saturday, October 9th at 7:00 PM. The clubs played to a scoreless draw in front of a national TV audience on May 16. GTSC returns home on Saturday, October 16th to face the New England Revolution II at 7:00 PM. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here.
