JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Carolina RailHawks four first-half goals propelled them to a 4-0 victory Saturday night, spoiling the Armada's first-ever sell-out at Community First Park (8,573 fans), snapping their perfect home record and ending their slim hopes of a North American Soccer League Spring Season title.
Now, their path to the league playoffs hinges on either winning the Fall Season or finishing with one of the top-two best overall records among the rest of the field.
But that seems a long way off now. With two games remaining before the summer break - including one against the likely Spring Season Champions New York Cosmos - the focus is just to stop leaking goals after consecutive losses of 3-2, 3-0 and 4-0.
Against Carolina, three of those goals came in an eight-minute stretch near the end of the first half, when the Armada were pushing ahead for an equalizer.
"When we started losing 1-0 we went into a little bit of a desperate mode trying to recover," said head coach Guillermo Hoyos. "They caught us unguarded."
A mid-week loss in the U.S. Open Cup could have left Jacksonville a bit below full strength, and they were also without injured star striker Alhassane Keita, but the RailHawks were in the same boat having also played Wednesday and with co-leading scorer Nacho Novo on the bench.
The Armada will take the field next on Sunday, June 7, hosting the Ottawa Fury at 4 p.m. Tickets, starting at $10, are available by calling 1.844.2.Armada or visiting armadafc.com.