Explosive start sets stage to see off Hartford for second win in row

So, it turns out last week wasn’t a fluke, the Riverhounds have indeed found their scoring boots and it isn’t too early to write off the season after all.

Goals from Edward Kizza, Langston Blackstock and Emmanuel Johnson gave the Riverhounds a safe enough cushion to withstand a spirited fight from Hartford Athletic and come away with a 3-1 win at Highmark Stadium on Saturday night. 

One of the oldest cliches in the sport is that football is a game of two halves, and my word that was certainly the case tonight. One half was action-packed and made you feel like the goals would be flowing as quickly as the cold ones handed out on $1 beer night, and the other was about as thrilling as watching a Matt Canada offense.

However given how things were for the team before last week’s win against Oakland, it’s still a form of progress. 

I wrote in the buildup to the game that one of the things the Riverhounds needed to do was play with the same intensity that they did for all 90 minutes last week, and it’s fair to say they did exactly that in the opening few minutes. First, you had Kizza coming inches away from opening the scoring from a corner kick, his diving effort at the far post cleared off the line by a Hartford defender.

Seconds later, and to the surprise of nobody in the press box, it was Junior Etou who worked his magic down the left side, driving into the box and drawing a foul from Deshane Beckford to earn the Riverhounds their second penalty in two weeks. Having been denied a moment before, Kizza struck a confident figure as he sent Greg Monroe the wrong way by rolling the ball to his left to give the home side the early lead: 

That lead was doubled and then tripled within 90 seconds of each other and both goals had a certain amount of luck involved. First, you had Blackstock, who carrying on from the theme of ‘confidence’ that I wrote about in last week’s recap, pulled out some tricks that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Ronaldinho highlight reel before flashing a cross-come-shot across the face of goal which left Monroe flat-footed and grasping at thin air as the ball hit the top corner of the net:

No word of a lie, I missed this next part as I was busy typing up the above paragraph ... that is how quickly the whole sequence played out. Although it seems as though I was still paying more attention than Monroe in the Hartford goal was as he failed to get clear a backpass in time before Johnson came hurtling into view to send the ball back the other way and into the net for the third time: 

To give credit to Hartford, they decided not to roll over in the same way that Oakland did last week, and managed to get themselves back in the game just past the half-hour mark, Mamadou Dieng getting his head on the end of Emmanuel Samadia cross to reduce the deficit past a somewhat flailing Eric Dick who was perhaps a still a little rusty having not been called into action last week:

On the stroke of halftime, Johnson could have made it four, getting onto the end of Kizza’s knockdown and if not for an outstretched arm of Monre, would have had a clear sight of goal, but that feint touch was enough to put him off and his effort went over the bar instead. 

And in a little hint to Hartford’s desire to make sure the game didn’t get away from them, they came rather close to making it 3-2 on the stroke of halftime with Dieng, who first forced a smart save from Dick, but the rebound was ruled out after being adjudged to be offside, but that little moment was probably enough to make sure the Hounds didn’t get too complacent as they went into the locker room at halftime.

It took some time for the game to fall into any sort of rhythm, but it was the Hounds who were showing more promise to find the back of the net again, with Mertz and Blackstock leading the charge with a selection of efforts, the closest being from Mertz who had his effort blocked from a sliding effort from a Hartford defender.

After that frantic start to the second half, the second half wasn’t exactly action-packed, but if you’re a Riverhounds fan, that can probably be seen as a good thing. With an aggregate score of 8-1 in the past two games, the team should just take what they can and run, especially given the scare that Hartford offered towards the end of the first half, you don’t need to be too greedy, the point had been made and the message had been sent to the rest of the league.

And while the turnaround isn’t necessarily ‘complete’ just yet, you still have to wonder for instance how this team will look when Danny Griffin and Pat Hogan are back to full fitness, and whether or not the likes of Kazaiah Sterling and Enoch Mushagalusa are going to feature having been noticeably absent from the matchday squads. 

It’s progress, and that’s all you can ask for right now.