Charleston Battery vs Orlando City B, 2016 USL Season: Final Score 2-1, OCB hands the Battery second home loss

The Battery dropped their second consecutive match at home Saturday, falling 2-1 to Orlando City B.

The Battery entered the match coming off a solid 2-1 victory at Pittsburgh, taking on an OCB that has struggled so far in their 2016 campaign sitting at seventh in eastern conference table with six losses.

The Lions took control of the match early with forward Michael Cox scoring the opening goal in the 16th minute gathering the ball inside the box making a fantastic turn and burying the ball into the back post past keeper Odisnel Cooper.

The Battery shook off the early goal, going toe to toe with the Lions, with the two clubs exchanging possession evenly. But OCB would strike again in the 42nd, Connor Donovan giving the Lions the goal advantage,

The goal would come off Pierre da Silva’s second assist of the day, putting a beautiful cross into the penalty area to find the head of Donovan.

An Orlando Charleston match up just wouldn’t be complete without a bit of controversy, and Orlando’s Tyler Turner provided just that in the closing moments of the opening half. Turner was sent off in the final minute of stoppage time after delivering a poke to the eye of Battery forward Ricky Garbanzo.

Midfielder Justin Portillo would convert the resulting PK to bring the Battery back to within a goal going into the locker room for the half.

The second half would be all Battery, with shorthanded OCB scrambling to deal with chance after chance by the home side.

Unfortunately luck was not on Charleston’s side as they failed to take advantage of the one man advantage.

Battery Coach Mike Anhaeuser on the match:

“Story of the night was we didn’t really hit the target. You gotta hit the target and follow rebounds, especially when it’s hot. It’s difficult, but you have to get through it. We had plenty of chances in the second half to tie it up and I think if we did find an equalizer we would have gone on to win the game.”

The loss drops the Battery’s record to 6-4-3, and will undoubtedly slide them even further down the Eastern Conference table.

Coach Anhaeuser:

“We need to keep our focus. We’ve got a home game next week and we need to get it going. We really need to jump out on a team early and we need to put them down. That’s when we have success. We don’t want to be a team that sits back and invites pressure. “

KEY TAKE AWAYS

No Finish

Despite being up a man, and playing three forwards, the Battery failed to convert on any of the mountain of chances they found in the second half.

Home Losing streak?

After a magical 29-game home winning streak came to an end the Battery have now dropped two consecutive home matches.

UP NEXT:

Home vs Harrisburg City Islanders, Saturday 6/18 7:30 p.m