CHARLESTON, SC – The Charleston Battery dropped a 2-1 decision to long-time rivals Rochester Rhinos at MUSC Health Stadium Saturday night.
The game between two of the best defensive teams in the USL was fairly open from the first whistle. The Battery and Rhinos traded chances early on, forcing both goalkeepers to make big saves.
Justin Portillo opened the scoring in the 16th minute, converting a penalty after a Rochester handball. The penalty chance came from a good exchange between Quinton Griffith and Zach Prince down the right side of the field. Griffith put a dangerous cross into the area forcing center back Vasileios Apostolopoulos to swing his arm at the ball to put it off. Portillo sent goalkeeper Tomas Gomez the wrong way on the penalty, scoring his 6th goal of the season and second in as many games.
Rochester answered fairly quickly, finding an equalizer nine minutes later. The scoring move started from midfield as the Rhinos strung together several passes before finding Christian Volesky in the box. Volesky collected the ball, turned, and slotted a shot under Alex Tambakis to level to score.
Both teams came out of the dressing rooms for the second half pressing hard for the go-ahead goal. Charleston put together some of its best passing moves of the season and created several dangerous scoring opportunities, but had trouble converting in front of goal.
“We created some of our best chances of the year tonight,” said Battery Head Coach Mike Anhaeuser. “Our movement was excellent and I thought the guys passed the ball around very well, but we missed the target and they didn’t.”
Rochester found the eventual game-winner in the 81st minute through substitute Gaousso Bakayoko. The ball pinged around the Battery penalty area and eventually fell to Bakayoko who toe poked it under Tambakis. The Atlanta United loanee got a piece of Bakayoko’s shot and was unlucky to be beaten a second time.
Charleston will look to rebound on the road in Canada on Wednesday with a rematch with FC Montreal. Following the midweek game, the Battery returns home to face Bethlehem Steel FC on Saturday, September 10th.
Box Score:
CHARLESTON BATTERY: Alex Tambakis, Quinton Griffith, Taylor Mueller, Shawn Ferguson (Forrest Lasso, 86), O’Brian Woodbine, Zach Prince (Emmanuel Adjetey, 86), Justin Portillo (goal, 16) (Dante Marini, 56), Ataulla Guerra (yellow card, 90), Maikel Chang, Ricky Garbanzo (Chris Tsonis, 75), Heviel Cordoves (Jeremy Ebobisse, 63)
Subs not used: Odisnel Cooper, Jeffery Otoo
ROCHESTER RHINOS: Tomas Gomez, Bradley Kamdem (Dominic Samuel, 73), Vasileios Apostolopoulos (yellow card, 14), Ryan Lee James, Joseph Farrell (Gaulisso Banayoko, 78; goal, 81), Kenardo Forbes, Michael Garzi (Kevyn McFarlane, 73) (Asani Samuels , 88) , Wal Fall (yellow card, 27), Sofiane Tergou (Chase Miller, 83; yellow card, 85), Christian Volesky (goal, 25), Steevan dos Santos (yellow card, 90)
Subs not used: Daniel Lynd, Andre Fortune