Tormenta Grabs 3 Crucial Points in Richmond

Credit South Georgia Tormenta FC

The story of the night would go to Austin Pack who throughout this season has made some absolutely stunning saves, and Saturday night was no different. As Pack would man the goal, Mason Tunbridge, Gabriel Cabral and Niall Reid-Stephen would tally goals as Tormenta would win 3-2 in Richmond.

The scoring would start early in this back and forth match as Mason Tunbridge would be taken down after a beautiful run up the middle just inside the box. As we have seen multiple times already this season Mason would take his own penalty, burying it straight down the middle as Richmonds keeper, Pablo Jara, would dive to his right. It would be Mason’s 8th goal of the season and his 3rd in the past 2 matches.

Gabriel Cabral would score his 1st league goal, 2nd overall on the season in the 31st minute. Tormenta would force a turnover just before the halfway line that would create a quick counter attack. It saw Cabral get a nice feed to the top of the box and he would drill the ball past Jara. This was one of those plays that Tormenta seemed to struggle to finish many times throughout the season as the luck just wasn’t on their side.

Austin Pack would make 1 of his 5 saves of the night in the 39th minute as Richmond would start to build pressure. Darwin Espinal would find space at the top right of the penalty box and fire this one at goal, however the shot would be denied as Austin would reach it with his left hand, pushing it away from goal. A second chance would be blocked by Alves and go out of play. The stop on Espinal, who is 1 of 2 Richmond players with 7 goals on the season and has found ways to bury these dangerous shots, was impressive as Austin was all over it.

The 2-0 lead held on as the ensuing corner would be played into the box and the initial header would be saved, but the rebound would find Klaidi Cela who put it into the left side of goal. Unfortunately there was nothing Austin could have done on that one, even with Oscar Jimenez able to make that initial stop. Richmond just loaded the box so the rebound had plenty of red shirts to find. The score would now be 2-1 as we moved closer to half-time.

Richmond would carry that pressure and momentum into stoppage time where we would have a minimum of 5 minutes. It wouldn’t take Richmond long, though, as Espinal would get a steal in the attacking side, dribble into the box and put a great feed to the feet of Joshua Kirkland. However, Austin would make a spectacular save with his left arm again, this time from almost right on. That would be all we see in the first half as both teams would move into the midfield and not find any space to create a chance to build serious momentum as the half ends. Tormenta would lead 2-1 at halftime, remember this is was a team who prior to this match had 1 road win in USL League One play all season.

Richmond would make 2 changes to their line up during the break in hopes that fresh legs would help to level this game up. In the 68th minute, that almost paid off as once again Espinal would get separation, this time in the top of the penalty arc and launch one on goal. However, as stated earlier the story of this one would be Austin, and once again he would dive to his right and with his outstretched hands push this one out of danger. However, Richmond would get the clearance from this one around midfield and move the ball nicely. A through ball to Espinal would allow him to fire one past Pack to tie the game up at 2 a-piece in the 70th minute.

The tied game wouldn’t last long, however, as Niall Reid-Stephen would find the back of the net in the 73rd minute. This goal, like many others we have seen from Niall, was a thing of beauty. He would take a chip pass from Handwalla Bwana, somehow stay on his feet as he was flanked by 2 Richmond players, and would slip this one under the arm of Jara for his 5th goal of the season. Jonathan Nyandjo almost gave Tormenta plenty of breathing room in the 90th minute as he would take a shot that Jara’s out stretched arms would find and push back out, luckily for Richmond to one of their own.

After 8 minutes of stoppage time in this one Tormenta would prevail victorious with a 3-2 win over Richmond. This was the 2nd win on the road in league play for Tormenta and the first win with Tormenta for interim manager Mark McKeever. The win took Tormenta from 13th to 10th in the standings just 1 point outside of the playoff cut. Tormenta continues their road trip Saturday as they travel to Chattanooga to take on league leader’s, Chattanooga Red Wolves. This will be a real test for Tormenta where any points here would help them as they make a push to the playoffs in their final 10 games.

Until next time, Vamos Tormenta.