3-goal burst hides the rust in opening win

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A return to competition after a three-month delay with only limited practice was never going to be easy. Sunday’s contest proved to be every bit as eccentric as expected. Capitalizing on several Louisville City FC errors, Riverhounds SC rallied for three unanswered goals to spoil the debut of the brand new Lynn Family Stadium for the home side with a 3-1 victory.

Early on, it did not appear that would be the case.

Louisville City FC drew first blood 17 minutes into the game. Speedy Williams settled a flick-on header from Corben Bone from just outside the box and smashed a low

driven ball past the outstretched hands of Tomas Gomez.

City players celebrated near the corner flag accompanied by a familiar soundtrack missing in the sports world since March: authentic cheering from real spectators. However, The 4,850 socially distanced and maskedfans would not have much more to cheer about the rest of the way.

Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley expected his team would be rusty given the lack of live play the past several months.

“We’ve really only had two weeks of training,” Lilley said. “No-contact smallgroup training.”

After the Williams goal, Louisville continued to press forward threatening to double their lead.

“Once they got ahold of the ball we backed off and were hesitant to challenge them,” Lilley added.

The Riverhounds were in danger of being engulfed by a purple wave until the game was stopped for the first scheduled water break. The stoppage of play allowed Lilley’s side to regroup.

“We told them to compete, get higher and put on some pressure,” the third-year head coach said. “We wanted to make it hard for them.”

The Riverhounds started to put pressure on Louisville’s back line and the equalizer would come just before the half.

Kenardo Forbes lofted a perfect ball over the top of Louisville’s back line to link up with Jordan Dover. The right-back’s perfectly timed run put him one-on-one with the keeper where a poke of the toe was all that was needed to give the Riverhounds their first goal of the season.

The match would not stay level for long with the Riverhounds coming out of the break much more alert than their counterparts.

“You could see the fatigue on both teams,” Lilley said. “There was sloppy passing from both teams. It’s going to take a few games to get running.”

A poorly placed header from Louisville’s Oscar Jimenez was easily intercepted by Ropapa Mensah who set up Robbie Mertz. The Upper St. Clair graduate’s shot took a deflection before finding the back of the net.

The Riverhounds would take advantage of more sloppy play from the Louisville City back line. An awful touch from Jimmy Ockford was collected by Mensah, who forced the Louisville keeper off his line. Mensah’s well-placed cross found Anthony Velarde’s left foot, and he needed to just guide the ball into an open net for Mensah’s second assist of the game.

“Once we got the 3-1 lead we were able to manage it,” Lilley said. “I think we closed the game out very well.”

The Riverhounds’ stifling defense prevented Louisville from creating many chances, as it could only muster one shot on target in the second half.

While thrilled with his team’s ability to get a road victory, Lilley believes the Riverhounds left room for improvement Sunday. “It’s a good feeling to get something out of this game but we have a lot of growing to do as a group and we have a tough next seven games in our schedule.”

The Riverhounds will go to Philadelphia Union II Saturday before hosting Indy Eleven in their first home match of the season July 22.