Lower Division Recap: Round 31

In the semi-preview of the NASL Soccer Bowl set for 7:30 pm ET Saturday, the New York Cosmos claimed a 1-0 road victory over the Atlanta Silverbacks in the regular season finale to finish the Fall campaign with just one loss and an eight-point gap over the second-place side Carolina RailHawks.

The RailHawks, who finished second in the Spring season as well, jumped into the number two spot with a 2-1 victory over the visiting San Antonio Scorpions while Tampa Bay had fallen 4-6 at against Minnesota. The results also ensured Carolina finished with the best overall point total for the entire 2013 campaign as they 12-7-7 for the year for 43 points, finishing five points in front of the 10-8-8 Rowdies.

At the other end of the total points spectrum, three teams failed to post a combined total that was equal to the Cosmos' Fall campaign of 31 points. The loss by San Antonio (30 points) and the 1-1 draw between the bottom two teams FC Edmonton (30 points) and Fort Lauderdale Strikers (26 points) left the trio in the arguably embarrassing situation.

The scoring race was an interesting affair in the final weekend as Pablo Campos of Minnesota made a late surge, building off of his hat-trick from last week, with two more goals, but Carolina's Brian Shriver matched the performance to win the Golden Boot by a two-goal margin with a 2013-best tally of 15 goals. Shriver, Campos (13 goals, five assists) and Tampa Bay's Georgi Hristov (12 goals, 7 assists) all finished in a three-way tie in points with 31 for the season.

NORTH AMERICAN SOCCER LEAGUE

New York Cosmos 1 :: 0 Atlanta Silverbacks 
NY: Henry Lopez (Korey Veeder) 34

San Antonio Scorpions 1 :: 2 Carolina RailHawks
SA: Sainey Touray 27
CAR: Brian Shriver (pen) 68, Brian Shriver 85

Minnesota United 6 :: 4 Tampa Bay Rowdies
MIN: Floyd Franks (Omar Daley) 10, Omar Daley 17, Omar Daley 60, Pablo Campos (Lucas Rodriguez) 71, Omar Daley (Mike Ambersley) 83, Pablo Campos (pen) 90
TB: Luke Mulholland (pen) 52, MIN Own Goal (Aaron Pitchkolan) 65, Eric Frimpong 85, Eric Frimpong (Luke Mulholland) 90

FC Edmonton 1 :: 1 Fort Lauderdale Strikers 
FTL: Carlos Salazar (pen) 8
EDM: Massimo Mirabelli (Daryl Fordyce) 74

NASL FALL, SPRING & OVERALL RECORDS (Final)

Fall + Spring = Overall… GD/GF
Carolina RailHawks 23 (7-5-2) + 20 (5-2-5) = 43 (12-7-7)… 9/41
Tampa Bay Rowdies 20 (5-4-5) + 18 (5-4-3) = 38 (10-8-8)… 8/51
Atlanta Silverbacks 16 (4-6-4) + 21 (6-3-3) = 37 (10-9-7)… -3/34
Minnesota United 20 (6-6-2) + 14 (4-6-2) = 34 (10-12-4)… -3/39
FC Edmonton 16 (3-4-7) + 14 (3-4-5) = 30 (6-8-12)… 0/26
San Antonio Scorpions 10 (3-10-1) + 20 (6-4-2) = 30 (9-14-3)… -5/34
New York Cosmos 31 (9-1-4)… 10/22
Fort Lauderdale Strikers 18 (5-6-3) + 8 (2-8-2) = 26 (7-14-5)… -16/28

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