{"id":1553,"date":"2011-04-10T00:26:31","date_gmt":"2011-04-10T04:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsports.us\/?p=1553"},"modified":"2011-04-10T00:26:31","modified_gmt":"2011-04-10T04:26:31","slug":"railhawks-fall-2-1-on-last-minute-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=1553","title":{"rendered":"RailHawks fall 2-1 on last-minute goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>CARY, N.C. \u2013 The Carolina RailHawks fell 2-1 Saturday night against the Puerto Rico Islanders in their NASL season opener Saturday at WakeMed Soccer Park.<\/p>\n

Etienne Barbara \u2013 who arrived in Cary from his native Malta late Friday night \u2013 equalized for the RailHawks on an 86th-minute penalty kick. But Puerto Rico\u2019s Jay Needham headed in a corner kick in stoppage time to deal the RailHawks their first home-opening defeat in club history (3-1-1).<\/p>\n

The RailHawks overcame trailing 1-0 for nearly an hour, playing down a man for 30 minutes and a driving rain storm to even the match minutes from full time only to succumb seconds away from the final whistle.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes into the game, the match was stopped for nearly two hours due to a thunder-and-lightening storm.<\/p>\n

After play resumed, Puerto Rico found the back of the net in the 32nd minute. Richard Martinez flung a ball through the area. It popped out to Hansen, and he struck it past a diving Brad Knighton at the near post.<\/p>\n

The RailHawks\u2019 two best chances came late in the first half. In the 42nd minute, Jonny Steele whipped a ball in from the left flank, but it was just out of the reach of Pablo Campos and Devon McKenney.<\/p>\n

Two minutes later, Steele hit a looping corner kick to the back post. Defender Cory Miller climbed above the defense and got a head on it, but the ball went wide.<\/p>\n

With torrential rain returning at the start of the second half, the RailHawks nearly capitalized when the ball died in a waterlogged spot in the Islanders\u2019 penalty area. The ball fell to Matt Watson, but his shot was saved by Puerto Rico goalkeeper Ray Burse.<\/p>\n

The RailHawks were dealt a blow in the 58th minute, when Steele was sent off for a hard tackle on Puerto Rico defender Scott Jones.<\/p>\n

Though down a man, the RailHawks\u2019 attack was energized. They spent the next 20 minutes in the Islanders\u2019 end. The equalizer materialized seven minutes after Barbara checked into the match. Floyd Franks struck a 25-yard free kick that was saved by Burse. Barbara gathered the rebound, then drew a foul near the corner of the area. He stepped to the spot and drilled the kick into the upper right corner to tie the match 1-1.<\/p>\n

But Puerto Rico immedietly went back on the attack. Carolina\u2019s Knighton made three saves in stoppage time (seven overall). His last led to a Puerto Rico corner kick. The Islanders\u2019 Needham found a hole in the Carolina defense and headed in the game winner.<\/p>\n

Carolina continues its three-match, season-opening homestand next Saturday, when they meet the Montreal Impact at 7 p.m. at WakeMed Soccer Park.<\/p>\n

– NEWS RELEASE –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CARY, N.C. \u2013 The Carolina RailHawks fell 2-1 Saturday night against the Puerto Rico Islanders in their NASL season opener Saturday at WakeMed Soccer Park….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-uncategorized","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1557,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}