Lower Division Recap: Round 16

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The race for the regular season title in USL Pro is on. Separated by a point, league leaders Orlando City and close contender Richmond both posted a draw and a victory on the week to keep pace with one another.

USL Pro

Orlando City was the first in action this week between the top two sides, but was only able to register a draw against Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Two days later though Richmond could only match that, needing to rally from two down in the final 23 minutes and finding the equalizer in the 90th for a 2-2 result against Phoenix, a side that struggled to beat Antigua in their previous two outings. Orlando returned home Saturday to post a relatively easy 3-1 win over Harrisburg while Richmond continued its western road swing in Los Angeles where they again had to come from behind, getting two strikes in the final 13 minutes for a 2-1 win off a 86th minute penalty.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the table, Rochester’s bid to avoid missing the playoffs for the first-time ever took a serious blow as they dropped another four crucial points in a pair of scoreless draws. They played to a stalemate at home Friday and then did the same Sunday in Montreal against the Impact Reserves.

Two nights after playing league leading Orlando City to the scoreless draw, Pittsburgh played host to Wigan Athletic, the recently relegated EPL side and reigning FA Cup champions, in a friendly. The 4-1 victory by the English side Friday night was the second of the weekend against USL opposition, having downed Dayton 6-1 on Tuesday.

Scoring Summaries / Ejections

MONDAY, July 15
USL/MLSR - Antigua 0 :: 6 Earthquakes Reserves – see summary below

TUESDAY, July 16
INTL FRIENDLY - Wigan Athletic 6 :: 1 Dayton 
WIG: Marc-Antoine Fortune (Fraser Fyvie) 14, James McCarthy (Shaun Maloney) 38, Grant Holt (Jordi Gomez) 49, Nouha Dicko 62, Bingham 68, Grant Holt (pen) 86
DAY: Brandon Swartzendruber (Irakli Khutsidze) 47

WEDNESDAY, July 17
Orlando 0 :: 0 Pittsburgh

FRIDAY, July 19
Wilmington 0 :: 0 Rochester

Dayton 0 :: 1 Charleston
CHB: Nicki Paterson 60

Harrisburg 2 :: 0 VSI Tampa Bay
HAR: Lucky Mkosana 12, Jimmy McLaughlin 87

Richmond 2 :: 2 Phoenix 
PHO: Thomas Ramos (Reid Schmitt) 23, Thomas Ramos (Cameron Vickers) 45
RIC: William Yomby 67, Shane Johnson 90

INTL FRIENDLY - Wigan Athletic 4 :: 1 Pittsburgh - Friendly
PIT: Jose Angulo 3
WIG: Roger Espinoza (Ben Watson) 11, Emerson Boyce (Ben Watson) 28, Grant Holt (Jen Beausejour)  47, Jordi Gomez (Adam Buxton) 88

SATURDAY, July 20
Dayton 0 :: 0 Charlotte 

Harrisburg 1 :: 3 Orlando 
ORL: Jean Alexandre (Luke Boden) 25, Jean Alexandre (Jamie Watson) 36 Dennis Chin 71
HAR: Lucky Mkosano (Yann Ekra) 79

SUNDAY, July 21
Rochester 0 :: 0 Impact Reserves 
~ MON: Collen Warner (ejection) 54
~ ROC: JC Banks (ejection) 54

Wilmington 1 :: 2 Pittsburgh 
PIT: Mike Seth (Seth C'deBaca) 52, Matt Dallman 79
WIL: Kyle Greig (Cody Arnoux) 72

Richmond 2 :: 1 Los Angeles 
LA: Matt Fondy (Rodrigo Lopez) 5
RIC: Richard Ownby (Matthew Delicate) 76, David Bulo (pen) 86
~ LA: Allen Russell (2C ejection) 90+

MLS Reserve League

It was a moderately busy week for MLS Reserves as there were one interleague contest and three league games. The theme of the week though was offense as each game featured at least five goals. It started off with the Earthquakes reserves crushing USL Pro Antigua. On Tuesday Real Salt Lake rallied from two down at home to edge Vancouver, 3-2, and an Wednesday rivals Chicago and Columbus went toe-to-toe in a goalfest with the host Fire Reserves prevailing 5-3. Colorado wrapped the week up with a 3-2 win in Seattle with Tony Cascio scoring twice.

Scoring Summaries / Ejections

MONDAY, July 15
(USL) Antigua 0 :: 6 Earthquakes Reserves 
SJ: Ring (Ballouchy) 2, Adam Jahn 16, ANT Own Goal 39, Sam Garza 53, Adam Jahn 58, Jordan Stewart 67

TUESDAY, July 16
Whitecaps Reserves 2 :: 3 RSL Reserves
VAN: Kevin Cobby (Kekuta Manneh) 6, Kekuta Manneh (Tommy Heinemann) 55
RSL: Sebastian Velasquez 64, Benji Lopez 84, John Paul Piñeda (Sebastian Velasquez) 89

WEDNESDAY, July 17
Crew Reserves 3 :: 5 Fire Reserves 
CHI: Sherjill MacDonald 21, Quincy Amarikwa 36, Maicon Santos (pen) 60, Brendan King (Yazid Atouba) 74, CLB Own Goal (Tyson Wahl) 83
CLB: Ryan Finley 36, Ethan Finlay (pen) 87, Ryan Finley 89

SUNDAY, July 21
Rapids Reserves 3 :: 2 Sounders Reserves 
COL: Danny Mwanga (Jamie Smith) 6, Tony Cascio 13, Tony Cascio (Jamie Smith) 20
SEA: Sean Cunningham 12, Henry Wingo (David Estrada, Sammy Ochoa) 72

North American Soccer League

With the league on break the only action was an international friendly in which San Antonio fell at home to Mexican second tier side Dorados de Sinaloa despite taking the lead two minutes in.

SATURDAY, July 20
INTL FRIENDLY -  Dorados de Sinaloa 2 :: 1 San Antonio
SA: Greg Janicki (Javier Saavedra) 2
DS: Julio Rodriguez 18, Julio Rodriguez 60

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