News

BAYAMON, PUERTO RICO (Sept 1, 2012) – The Carolina RailHawks (9W-7T-7L, 34 pts) earned their third road victory of the year with a 3 – 1 win over the Puerto Rico Islanders (10W-6T-8L, 36 pts) in Puerto Rico.  With the win, the RailHawks have climbed to 4^th place in the NASL standings with 5 games remaining.  Brian Ackley, Jason Garey, and Nick Zimmerman scored for the RailHawks and Hector Ramos scored for the Islanders.

“Tonight was a big win,” said Carolina Head Coach Colin Clarke. “We are starting to play some of our best soccer and now we return home with a big matchup awaiting us against San Antonio.”

The RailHawks came out flying to start the match with two great scoring opportunities, forcing Islanders goalkeeper Richard Martin to make to huge saves in the first two minutes of play.  The RailHawks struck in the 20^th minute, when a Greg Shields header bounced off the crossbar and Ackley collected the rebound, poking the ball across the goal line.  In the 36^th minute, a streaking Brian Shriver found Garey open at the top of the box.  Garey waited for the Islanders last defender to commit before picking out the bottom right corner of the goal.  The RailHawks entered the halftime with a 2 – 0 lead.

The Islanders took off the second half with a sense of determination and, in the 47th minute, Martinez passed the ball to a running Addlery, who relayed to center where Hector Ramos finally scored their first goal. In the 61st minute mark, Faña was subbed in for Fojo,and immediately looked for the tying goal, but his shot went wide by a few inches.  

The RailHawks took the Islanders’ effort seriously and, in the 71st minute, Zimmerman took an assist from Shipalane and reached the net to put Carolina ahead 3-1.

In an effort to catch up to the RailHawks in the last minutes of the game, Foley tooka corner kick to the center of the box were Vazquez tried to head it into the net, but his shot went wide and the final whistle found the scoreboard Puerto Rico Islanders 1 – 3 Carolina RailHawks.

Puerto Rico Head Coach Adrian Whitbread reacted after the match: “For the first half we didn’t show up. I tried to motivate them during halftime, but we couldn’t get to the net. Carolina wanted it more and they deserve the result. We have to stay positive.  The season is not over.”