ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013\u00a0The Tampa Bay Rowdies\u00a0faced off against Major League Soccer\u2019s CF Montreal in\u00a0120 minutes\u00a0of preseason action on Saturday night at Al Lang Stadium. Goals by Karsen Henderlong and Russell Cicerone saw Tampa Bay earn a 2-0 result through 90 minutes\u00a0before Montreal tallied twice in the\u00a0additional\u00a030 minutes to conclude the scrimmage.<\/p>\n
The Rowdies had a flurry of chances within the opening minutes, with Pedro Dolabella coming close to\u00a0nabbing\u00a0the opening goal with a strike from\u00a0distance\u00a0that just sailed over the crossbar.\u00a0Defender Brian Schaefer then forced Montreal\u2019s goalkeeper into a save with a header off a corner kick sent in by teammate Marco\u00a0Micaletto before Cicerone was also denied on a shot to the top-left corner of the goal.<\/p>\n
Henderlong\u00a0finally\u00a0put Tampa Bay on top in the 34th\u00a0minute.\u00a0Dolabella\u00a0initiated\u00a0the scoring sequence,\u00a0penetrating\u00a0from\u00a0the right edge of Montreal\u2019s penalty area before sliding a pass across goal for\u00a0Cicerone.\u00a0The Rowdies attacker fired off\u00a0a shot off that was parried\u00a0away but put right\u00a0into the path on an unmarked Henderlong, who buried the ball into the open net.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Henderlong nearly scored a second goal early in the second after he stripped the ball off the goalkeeper outside of the box, but he sent his strike a few inches wide right of the goal as defenders rushed in to thwart him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rowdies eventually found their second goal from the penalty spot. Montreal\u2019s Brayan Vera\u00a0drew the referee\u2019s whistle for committing a foul while\u00a0attempting\u00a0to nullify a Rowdies corner-kick opportunity. Vera was sent off for his\u00a0infraction\u00a0and Cicerone stepped to convert the chance with an emphatic blast into the back of the net.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With several players carrying injuries, the Rowdies squad was primarily made up of trialists and players from the Rowdies 2 development past the 75th\u00a0minute. The Rowdies still managed to hold Montreal at bay until the 104th minute when the visitors final broke through. Montreal then nicked an equalizer goal off a header on the last sequence of the match.<\/p>\n
LEXINGTON SC 2, NASHVILLE SC 1: Marcus Epps and Malik Henry-Scott scored late in either half to send Lexington to its second victory against Major League Soccer opposition this preseason with victory at Geodis Park on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Epps gave Lexington the lead three minutes before the halftime break when he capitalized on a loose touch by Nashville goalkeeper Xavier Valdez on a backpass, stealing possession before finishing into the net. Nashville equalized 10 minutes into the second half when a missed clearance by goalkeeper Oliver Semmle went directly to Hany Mukhtar, who set up Cristian Espinosa for a simple finish.<\/p>\n
With 10 minutes to play, however, Henry-Scott bagged the winner as Jacob Greene picked up possession on the left flank before cutting back a cross to the forward to finish.<\/p>\n
PITTSBURGH RIVERHOUNDS SC 2, LOUDOUN UNITED FC 1: Trevor Amann scored his first goal of the preseason before a second-half own goal gave Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC its third consecutive win to start preseason against Loudoun United at the AHN Montour Sports Complex on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Amann gave the Hounds the lead in the 24th minute when\u00a0Jorge Garcia capitalized on a turnover in the Loudoun half, allowing Garcie\u00a0to dribble toward goal on the right before he played a low pass across goal for Amann, who calmly finished into the open part of the net.<\/p>\n
United hit back four minutes into the second half as\u00a0Jack Panayotou\u00a0turned the corner along the goal line and into the right side of the penalty area. The New England Revolution loanee found Arquimides\u00a0Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez arriving late to the front of goal, and the Guatemalan international scored with a rising shot under the crossbar.<\/p>\n
The Hounds regained the lead in the 66th minute, however, after\u00a0Eliot Goldthorp\u2019s\u00a0whipped cross into the box aimed for\u00a0Albert Dikwa\u00a0and\u00a0Brigham Larsen\u00a0instead redirected off a Loudoun defender that turned the ball into the goal.<\/p>\n
Other Preseason Scores
\nLas Vegas Lights FC 1, Phoenix Rising FC 0
\nSan Antonio FC 0, FC Tulsa 0 (game abandoned due to lightning at halftime)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013\u00a0The Tampa Bay Rowdies\u00a0faced off against Major League Soccer\u2019s CF Montreal in\u00a0120 minutes\u00a0of preseason action…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[115,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-156614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-st-pete","10":"tag-st-pete-headlines","11":"tag-st-pete-news","12":"tag-st-petersburg","13":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","14":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}