Tormenta storms past Richmond

Photo Credit: Alex Ashton

The third time was the charm for Tormenta as South Georgia got its first League One win of the season as goalkeeper Ford Parker had another outstanding performance and the offense took advantage of Richmond's defensive miscues to come away with a 3-1 win Saturday night in Virginia.

Conor Doyle, Niall Watson and Mason Tunbridge all scored  while Parker came up big with seven saves for the second consecutive week, including showing his quick reflexes early when Richmond was able to get to the endline and cut the ball back to the six yard box. Parker was able to get a hand down to stop the shot.

Minutes later, Doyle opened the scoring in the fourth minute. Following a deflected shot from Nick Akoto, Doyle stepped up as the ball settled 23 yards out and Doyle took the shot on his first touch and fired it to the upper left part of the goal past longtime Tormenta keeper Pablo Jara to put Tormenta ahead 1-0.

Parker, who has won USL League One save of the week two weeks in a row and seems likely to be a candidate again following this week, was forced to make a diving save 10 minutes later. The Kickers (0-2-0 - W-L-D) had a free kick from about 40 yards out. The ball was sent in to the left side of the box where Richmond was able to get a head on it. Parker dove to his left to punch the ball away, keeping Tormenta with the 1-0 lead.

Richmond would dominate the time of possession in the first half, but were unable to break through the Tormenta defense, though a corner kick late in the first half provided an opportunity, but the shot went just wide as South Georgia  (1-1-1)went into halftime up 1-0.

Ten minutes into the second half, Ajmeer Spengler corralled a loose ball near the top of the Tormenta box and proceeded to weave his way through the Kickers' defense past midfield before playing a through ball to Watson, who perfectly timed his run to to be wide open behind the Richmond defense. 

Finding himself one-on-one with Jara, Watson was able to slide his shot low and to the right, beyond the reach of Jara for Watson's second goal of the season for Tormenta. If you paid close attention to the game, you'd have seen that the goal was scored by "F. Lastname" on the ESPN+ broadcast, which I can only assume means he's related to Paul L'astname from the show 30 Rock. (It's pronounced Lahst-nah-may).

South Georgia would give up an own goal two minutes into stoppage time when a Richmond shot deflected off Preston Kilwien to trim the lead to 2-1. 

However, moments later, Tormenta would capitalize on a turnover deep in Richmond territory. Gabriel Rodriguez found himself alone on the right side of the box and was able to draw Jara and the Kickers' defender to him as he showed remarkable patience. He then found Mason Tunbridge open 10 yards out  in the middle for a first-time strike for his first professional goal to seal the win for Tormenta.

South Georgia returns to action next Saturday when they travel to Knoxville for a 4 p.m. kickoff.