Greenville Triumph SC secured its second consecutive victory, beating the Richmond Kickers 3-2 in a back-and-forth affair Saturday night at Legacy Early College. 

Richmond started the brighter of the two sides, but Greenville opened the scoring through an own goal in the 21st minute. The ball pinged around inside the penalty area before Richmond’s Scott Thomsen turned his attempted clearance into his own net to give the hosts the lead.  

Matt Bolduc answered for the Kickers, latching on to Wahab Ackwei’s long ball out of the back and finding the bottom corner of Dallas Jaye’s goal to equalize. 

Richmond scored a second own goal 14 seconds into the second half after back-up goalkeeper Matthew Broomall collided with his defender and misplayed a long ball. Omar Mohamed ran onto the loose ball and was in on goal, but the final touch came off Richmond’s Ian Antley. 

Jake Keegan doubled Greenville’s lead, finishing off a swift counterattack with a powerful strike from inside the six-yard box.

Emilaino Tergazhi opened his Kickers account with a flicked header, meeting Jonathan Bolanos’ cross near the penalty spot and beating goalkeeper Dallas Jaye. 

Minutes after the goal, Greenville’s Brandon Fricke was shown a straight red card for a denial of a goal scoring opportunity and the Triumph were reduced to ten men.

With the man-advantage, Richmond threatened, but couldn’t find a way past Jaye and dropped the first match of the Darren Sawatzky era. 

The victory keeps Greenville at the top of the table, with six points from six to start the season.

SCORING SUMMARY 

21’ GVL: own goal 
35’ RIC: Bolduc (first) assisted by Ackwei
46' GVL: own goal 
69' GVL: Keegan (second) assisted by Polak 
74' RIC: Terzaghi (first) assisted by Bolanos 

NEXT MATCHES

Greenville: July 31 v. Forward Madison FC (A)
Richmond: July 28 v. South Georgia Tormenta FC (A)