Disappointing Draw in Dayton, Match finishes 2-2

Saturday evening the Charleston Battery traveled to Ohio to face the Dayton Dutch Lions in their first home fixture since the first week in June.  It was a good opportunity for Charleston to grab a few more points as they prepare for a difficult home stretch finishing up the season.  Well, a game that could have gone either way, went neither way.  Two apiece was the final result; one that left both teams with their fair  share of disappointment.

While the match was not Charleston's finest, the Battery's Nicki Patterson logged his best performance of the season scoring twice for Charleston in the first half.  In fact, all the evening's action would come in the first half of play.  A botched clearance from the Dutch Lion defence was seized upon by Alex Caskey in the 13th minute, who promptly fed the ball to Patterson.  The Scotsman effortlessly lofted the shot to the unreachable top left corner of the net.  The lead would stand only five minutes as Dayton leveled in the 18th.  The match quickly evolved into an offensive shootout and the play kept a high tempo for the remainder of the half.  It was Charleston who again edged ahead in the 41st minute and this time it was Seedy Bah who assisted Patterson.  In stoppage time, a well placed corner kick erased Charleston's lead as Happy Hall equalized for the Lions for the second and final time.  Both sides had more scoring chances in the second half but as the match finished, neither had much to show for it.

No joy for the Low Country Boys

In other league matches over the weekend, Charlotte beat Wilmington at home Friday only to reverse the result with an away loss to the Hammerheads Saturday night.  With those results, Wilmington is now tied with Richmond for 2nd in our division, one point and one game ahead of Charleston.  The Hammerheads have a favorable schedule in the coming weeks and are likely to drop very few points.  Charlotte also have a fairly easy schedule to finish the season and will look to trim the four point deficit that currently leaves the Battery in playoff contention.  Charleston will now have a tough road to hoe, facing Rochester (National Division leaders) this weekend, two away matches in Orlando, and a final home fixture against the Charlotte Eagles.  It may be a tense few weeks, but we have to buckle down and grind out as many points as possible from these next few games, then gear up to stick it to Charlotte in our last regular season match.