Steel City FC remained unbeaten in its USL League Two campaign with a strong second half surge, to defeat Cleveland Force, 3-1, on a very hot night at Founders Field in Indianola.
Scoring goals for the USL L2 Great Forest Division front runners and defending champs included Jake Lane, Mathieu Brick and Nicholas Niebauer.
“Very happy with the performance yesterday from the guys,” Steve Rerick, Steel City assistant head coach, who’s filling in for Dan Brower for the next week, told Pittsburgh Soccer Now in a match where it was a scoreless affair through the first 45 minutes.
“I thought we did well controlling the tempo of the game with the heat, which allowed us to wear down Cleveland throughout the first half and capitalize on our chances in the second half.”
Steel City’s patience and belief that they would finish strong remained persistent. First, Jake Lane’s goal in the 67th minute provided the breakthrough.
“We knew going into the game the quality we have on the bench would play a big role and bringing on players like Niebauer, Brick, and Anass later in the game would impact the game in a really positive way,” Rerick added.
Both Niebauer and Brick came off the bench to score the goals that proved to be the difference in the 77th and 89th minutes respectively. Cleveland cut the deficit to 2-1, in the 83rd minute, off the foot of Anderson Gardner.
“The strength of our bench is fantastic and being able to bring on 4 home grown products to impact the game, get a goal, and lock down the back line is what the club is all about. Great result and the guys are looking forward to next Wednesday to take on Cleveland again.”
In effectively thwarting Cleveland’s pressure, Rerick felt that former Hampton High School and current Duquesne standout defender Luke Fiscus played a huge role in securing the win.
“Luke was the man of the match for me with the work he put in to push the team forward as well as a few goal line clearances.”
Steel City (7W-0L-3D, 24 points) have two matches remaining, next Wednesday at Cleveland and then at Lorain County (OH) on July 11 while remaining three points ahead of FC Buffalo (21 points) and four ahead of Riverhounds Two (20 points). While FC Buffalo also have two matches remaining, Riverhounds Two only have one contest left, so they cannot overtake or tie Steel City. Steel City also holds the tiebreaker edge on FC Buffalo having posted a 1W-0L-1D record in head-to-head match ups.
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