An Early Red Card and Late Goals Undermine Gritty Triumph Performance
Madison, WI (July 12, 2025) – Following a 10-day break, the Greenville Triumph were defeated 3-1 Saturday night in a heated road battle against Forward Madison. Despite playing down a man for over 70 minutes and a late goal from Chevone Marsh, Greenville couldn’t complete the comeback, falling to 4-7-4 in League play.
Forward Madison wasted no time testing the Triumph’s backline, striking in the fifth minute with a cross in from former player, Nico Brown and a one touch finish from Luca Dourado to get it past goalkeeper Gunther Rankenburg. Greenville responded quickly with attacking energy: Leo Castro nearly equalized twice in the opening 15 minutes—once with a header off a corner and again with a first-time strike just wide after a pinpoint cross from Ben Zakowski. The match took a dramatic turn in the 21st minute when Zane Bubb was shown a straight red card for a sliding challenge outside the Triumph’s penalty area, forcing the visitors to play a man down the rest of the way. Despite the disadvantage, Greenville continued to press. A pair of dangerous free kicks from Connor Evans found the head of Brandon Fricke on the far post, but Madison’s keeper was up to the task. Rankenburg came up big again in the 39th minute, this time denying Brown a goal to keep the deficit at one heading into halftime.
The second half started slowly but picked up pace in the final 30 minutes. Rankenburg turned away another Brown effort in the 50th minute, but Madison doubled their lead shortly after with a goal from Derek Gebhard in the 55th following some offside miscommunication in the Triumph defensive third. Just a minute into his return, Pascal Corvino nearly scored with a one-touch strike that went just wide. Greenville finally broke through in the 85th minute when Chevone Marsh rose up to nod home a cross—his first goal in Triumph colors. However, Madison sealed the win three minutes later. Rankenburg made an initial save off a shot from Juan Galindrez, but the rebound fell unfavorably, and Madison capitalized to make it 3-1.
Greenville now turns its focus to regrouping for this coming Wednesday as they take on Portland Hearts of Pine for the first time this season at 6:30 PM in Maine.
