Strikes from Kizza, Mertz push Riverhounds to seventh in East

First-half goals from Edward Kizza and Robbie Mertz ensured the Riverhounds ended the night in a playoff spot as they dispatched of a slightly-weakened Charleston Battery side 2-0 at Highmark Stadium.

This was certainly a game that, at least from the outset could have gone many ways. 

With the visitors locked into their 2nd place spot in the conference, but with three games left to play, you can never tell whether they were in ‘foot off the gas’ mode to preserve themselves or whether they would try to play as hard as they can to keep the momentum going. Would they rest any players, or will they make sure their legs keep ticking over before the postseason? 

Well, the latter part was answered when the lineups were announced as Battery head coach Ben Pirmann left the USL Championship’s top scorer Nick Markanich on the bench: 

That decision wasn't totally a shock to Hounds coach Bob Lilley, who after the game stated "Their record hasn't been great the last five or six games, probably because they're a little tired. As a coach you're clinched, they're not getting higher or lower than second ... it's an opportunity to get players ready, but we still played a good team tonight."

Any nerves were quickly eased inside the opening 90 seconds, and having scored three times last week, Bertin Jacquesson turned provider as he led a very decisive counterattack before lofting a perfectly placed ball over the top of the Battery backline into the path of Kizza who had the simple task of chipping the ball over the onrushing Adam Grinwis and into the back of the net and bag his 10th of the season:

The beauty of this goal is the fact that Jacquesson makes the whole thing look so simple. You can tell that he has experience at a higher level, and moments like this show exactly why. The control in the buildup to get past the first few defenders, knowing the perfect spot to put the ball into, and the ability to get it there with inch-perfect precision. 

And his introduction to the team was something that goalscorer Mertz stressed to me afterwards "We have a team that has worked really hard for each other all year ... there's no denying though that we've lacked quality in front of goal at times this year. Him doing things tonight like he did on his assist tonight, that was a top-class assist. To have that added into our attack is huge, it gives us a different dimension and gives other teams more to think about, and that's huge."

It is a real shame that it took so long for him to arrive, otherwise all these playoff uncertainties would be nonexistent.

If the first goal required skill, the second required a little bit of luck, although I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention captain Danny Griffin for taking charge of the situation and showing insane determination to chase down the loose ball. Jacquesson did his best to control the ball, but he didn’t need to as Mertz arrived late into the box and saw his shot take a huge deflection off of Leland Archer before rolling into the net to double the Hounds’ lead: 

Not to be content with just two goals, the Hounds continued to pile forward and almost made it three on the half-hour mark as Luke Biasi got on the end of a Mertz cutback from the byline, and whilst that one also got a deflection, it could only roll gently into Grinwis’ hands.

The visitors didn’t put up much of a fight for the vast majority of the game, and their decision to keep Markanich on the bench kind of indicated that they were more focused on winning the war than the battle, but that didn’t mean they weren’t given a few openings, most notably when the ball is played back to Eric Dick by Pat Hogan but the goalkeeper was a little slow in clearing his lines and got lucky that the onrushing MD Myers’ charge down didn’t find its way into the net and only bounced away for a goal kick. 

As the game wound down, it was clear that the message had been received by both sides to down tools and see the game out, particularly as both would have wanted to avoid injuries or suspensions that could hamper them down the line (with the lone exception coming for Illal Osumanu who after picking up his eighth booking of the season earlier in the game will miss the game against Loudoun United next week). 

The Hounds did what they needed to do tonight, which was handle their business. The truth is though, they still need a bit of help from elsewhere. They didn’t get any tonight as Hartford Athletic handily dispatched North Carolina, and will be hoping that both Rhode Island can beat Loudoun United and Las Vegas can defeat Birmingham Legion on Sunday. 

Then comes the big one, which is against Loudoun United next Saturday, and Lilley knows just how important the game is "We have had that weight on our shoulders, we have to go to Loudoun now and win that game to win the season series against them and it's going to be an important game. If we drop that game, then it's completely out of our control."

So in reality, just how happy fans should be after tonight can’t be measured until we see those results come through and we see what the table looks like. But what you can’t deny is that they are well and truly giving it their all to squeeze into that last spot … only time will tell whether they left the charge too late or not.