In his first career start for the Riverhounds, forward Albert Dikwa came through in the clutch.
The Garoua, Cameroon native, who had only one goal heading into Saturday’s matchup with Loudoun United, tallied his second of the season in the 81st minute to give the Riverhounds a 1-0 lead and ultimately their fifth straight victory.
“These are games we’ll play at playoff time, and we’ll have to be resilient and figure it out,” Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley said. “The guys did a good job working their way into the game and finding the goal. I think we closed the game out well.”
That go-ahead goal, late game magic. #UNLEASH #LDNvPIT pic.twitter.com/zxlgeTJV9Z
— x-Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC (@RiverhoundsSC) September 20, 2020
The Riverhounds (10-3-1) had dominated their season series with Loudoun (1-9-3) heading into Saturday. They’d won the previous two games by a combined score of 5-0 with two clean sheets by Danny Vitiello. Saturday’s contest was no different, but Loudon challenged the Black and Gold throughout.
Loudoun finished with a slight advantage in possession (51.2-48.8), but the Riverhounds controlled the shot battle, putting four on net compared to Loudoun’s two.
“They (Loudoun) were ready to play,” Lilley said. “We started a bit slow, and I thought the end of the first half we started to play our way into the game. It was a good test for us to come in at halftime and have to play better in the second half.”
After entering the game in the 65th minute for Ropapa Mensah, Steevan Dos Santos returned from a injury he suffered leading into last week’s Hartford Athletic game. He assisted on Dikwa’s goal in the 81st minute when he sent a through ball into the box for Dikwa, who finished it off with a nifty move around Loudoun’s keeper.
Saturday was the final road game of the regular season for the Hounds, and they will finish off the regular season with two contests at home against Hartford Athletic (Sept. 26) and Philadelphia Union (Oct. 3).
The Riverhounds have a nine-point lead on Hartford Athletic for first place in Group F and also have the second highest point total (31) in the USL Championship behind San Antonio FC (33).
