ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013 MD Myers recorded a goal and assist while Pedro Dolabella and Louis Perez also found the net as the Tampa Bay Rowdies took a 3-0 victory against Phoenix Rising FC at Al Lang Stadium on Saturday night to extend their undefeated streak to start the current campaign.<\/p>\n
The Rowdies took the lead after just 73 seconds as Myers corralled a looping ball into the penalty area and deftly flicked a ball through to Dolabella, who struck home first time from just outside the six-yard area. The hosts had another pair of opportunities early before Phoenix started to get a foothold in the game as Ihsan Sacko had a pair of opportunities for the visitors, but Tampa Bay broke the game open in the 28th minute when Charlie Ostrem\u2019s run and pass from midfield found Myers, who turned his defender beautifully before shooting home from close to the penalty spot.<\/p>\n
The Rowdies struck again five minutes later as Perez struck for a third consecutive outing with a spectacular strike from just inside the top-right edge of the penalty area that clipped the underside of the crossbar and caromed into the left side of the net. The hosts twice went close early in the second half to adding to their lead, including a good effort by Sebastian Cruz, and also hit the crossbar late via Gino Vivi, but saw out a comfortable win.<\/p>\n
Takeaways<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Rowdies \u2013 The Rowdies picked up a six-point week as they made another fast start following Louis Perez\u2019s early goal against New Mexico United on Wednesday night. Tampa Bay looked in control for much of the game as it extended its overall league undefeated streak to 12 games and moved seven points clear in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n
Phoenix Rising FC \u2013 The visitors were put on the back-foot early both through the Rowdies\u2019 early goal and the early injury to Adri\u00e1n Pelayo that forced the side to reshuffle its lineup inside the opening 20 minutes. Rising\u2019s undefeated streak ended and the side will head home looking to rebound in another key game against Sacramento Republic FC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013 MD Myers recorded a goal and assist while Pedro Dolabella and Louis Perez also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[115,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-283104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-news","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283104","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=283104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}