Northern Colorado snag a clean sheet and three points from Saturday night’s contest.
SEVERANCE, Colo. – Happy days for Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC as their run of good play results in a 2-0 victory over the South Georgia Tormenta FC. The first win in Severance is a big one, leaving much to play for the rest of the season.
Northern Colorado was the first to fire a number of shots early. For the first 20 minutes the side came close courtesy of Trevor Amann, Arthur Rogers, and Danny Robles. None however were quite enough to put the Hailstorm in front.
Just after the 20 minute mark, South Georgia came up with two chances of their own. First, an attack that saw Adrian Billhardt put a solid shot on target but it was blocked away by keeper Johan Peñaranda. The rebound that followed was taken by Gabriel de Freitas, but it rang off the crossbar, ending the attack. Tormenta came close with a free kick minutes later, but the shot went through the American football uprights, troubling no one.
The first half would come to a close with both teams goalless and having 45 minutes to find a way through the opposition.
The Hailstorm came with a chance early in the second half when halftime substitute Stefan Lukic dispossessed a South Georgia defender on the edge of the 18-yard box. Lukic took two touches and had a go from the edge of the box, with Pablo Jara handling the shot well.
As the clock struck the hour mark the opening salvo had been thrown by the Hailstorm. Rogers picked out a pass to Irvin Parra in the box who attempted to flick it on for halftime substitute Jackson Dietrich, but the pass was deflected by the Tormenta defender. Unlucky for South Georgia the deflection was right into the path of Rogers who put it home for his first goal of the season.
“I don’t score too many, my game is more assisting and creating chances. You can’t beat the feeling of scoring a goal and celebrating with the guys, in front of the fans. Definitely an amazing feeling,” said Rogers.
Hailstorm kept pushing and doubled their lead when Rogers got the chance to whip in a corner in the 82nd minute. The corner came in from the right foot of Rogers right into the middle of the box, and right on to the head of Brecc Evans who put the header away. “I knew Arthur was going to put in a good ball. Me, Irvin, Rob go to all the important spots at the near post, far post, middle. Wherever the ball ends up just attack it,” said Evans.
“Feels good to get a clean sheet,” said Peñaranda. “Definitely been a little more difficult to come by than we as a team expected. The guys put in a great shift today. The team deserved this 1000%.”
With the 2-0 win the Hailstorm have put themselves in a good position to be only one point out of the USL League One Playoff picture, with 10 games to play. It is still all to play for with six of those 10 coming in Severance with a home field advantage.
“I’m delighted. That’s my favorite result of the year,” said head coach Éamon Zayed. “To win and keep a clean sheet, we haven’t done that all year except for in the cup. I would have taken a one-nil. I think we’ve played a lot better than that and lost. But delighted, very delighted.”
The future home of Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC, 118-acre Future Legends Complex will feature 6,500-seat TicketSmarter Stadium, 2,500-seat Future Legends Field, multiple baseball diamonds, and multi-purpose fields, an indoor sports arena, lodging, and retail; and will host guests for major sports tournaments, events, leagues, and more.