Battery take on Harrisburg in Monday Night clash

The Charleston Battery roll into Harrisburg for the back half of a two-game road trip on Monday night hoping to put recent woes behind them, with the Islanders firmly on their heels. The two sides are 7th and 11th respectively, but are separated by only two points, and the Battery definitely need some breathing space after a poor run of form.

Friday’s loss to Rochester was a gallant effort by the Black and Yellow, after they came back from a goal down on two occasions, but the defending champions came away with the three points and won 3-2, something that, while only three days on, the Battery will look to put firmly out of their minds, and it will help surely if they can put a shift in come Monday evening.

The match against the Battery comes in the middle of a four game home stand for the Islanders, who drew with Cincinnati on Saturday, but went ahead before giving up a late goal and having to settle rather than earn the point. The four game stretch at home is followed by a four game road trip, in which they’ll come to MUSC Health Stadium at the end of.

A tight game might be expected, with the same being said for Harrisburg’s previous matches, so the Battery defense will definitely need to be on their toes, wary that any mistake may prove costly.

Five goals in the last three for the Battery, however, means they have gone up a gear despite being somewhat unlucky in recent weeks. Romario Williams leads the team in goals and has already scored some important goals this year, but Ricky Garbanzo has finally broken his duck for the season after returning from injury in Rochester, and Maikel Chang has also put in some very very fine performances himself. Justin Portillo has fired a few from the penalty spot, and so the weapons in attack are by no means lacking, it just took awhile for them to get up to full speed.

The side in Rochester also featured Zach Prince who returned from suspension, but the visitors were without Attaulah Guerra who sustained a knee injury. New signing Jose “Yepito” Nazereno was amongst the subs in the loss, but was an unused sub. We may see him on Monday night, along with Odisnel Cooper, who was rested against the Rhinos after two straight games in goal.

So, with the Battery attack finally beginning to flourish, they can perhaps begin to feel confident going into an early high pressure game such as this. We will have to see what unfolds on Monday night. The match kicks off at 7:00PM,