ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Rowdies fell 4-1 in Saturday’s Independence Day matchup with Western Conference side Lexington SC at Al Lang Stadium.
The Rowdies found themselves with a two-goal deficit within the first 15 minutes of Saturday’s contest. Lexington’s Xavier Zengue struck first in the 12th minute when he collected a loose ball inside the box and sent a right-footed shot past Rowdies Goalkeeper Jahmali Waite. Nick Firmino doubled the advantage only two minutes later when the visitors quickly played a ball over Tampa Bay’s back line near the halfway line. The Rowdies protested for an offside flag on Phillip Goodrum, but no flag came and Goodrum was free to run into the final third before centering a pass for Firmino to convert.
“We started way too slowly,” said Rowdies Head Coach Dominic Casciato. “You can’t give anyone a two-goal, and then a three-goal lead. Obviously that was tough for us to overcome… We were a little too sluggish to start the game. We’ve got to learn that lesson.”
Tampa Bay had a chance to cut the lead in half from the penalty spot after Lexington was whistled for a handball in the box. Rowdies attacker Russell Cicerone stepped up to the spot, but his attempt was swatted away by Lexington Goalkeeper Oliver Semmle.
“We had a couple big chances from set pieces that we didn’t take,” said Casciato. “Lexington played well in the first half, but if you look at the first and the second half, there were big chances that we created that we didn’t take. I don’t remember them having a ton of chances, but the ones they got they did well with. Credit them for that.”
Lexington notched a third goal just before the halftime break as Marcus Epps penetrated the box and cut inside before delivering a strike into the bottom left corner of the goal.
The Rowdies held the advantage in possession in the closing half of the match but only managed to find the back of the net once. Substitute Gino Vivi recorded his first goal of the year in the 78th minute, controlling a pass sent into the box from the left flank by teammate Charlie Ostrem and rifling his second touch past Semmle.
Lexington eventually put the match out of Tampa Bay’s reach in the 86th minute when substitute Malik Henry-Scott rocketed a long-range effot into the top right corner to cap off a counterattack opportunity.
“We don’t make excuses,” said Rowdies Defender Sebastian Cruz. “Our standard is really high. We’re really hard on ourselves and our performances. We know we weren’t good enough today. We’re really disappointed we didn’t get the result, especially in front of our home crowd. At the end of the day, we’ve got many games to go, and our mentality is to attack the next game like it’s the last one we’ll have.”
Next up, the Rowdies remain at Al Lang Stadium to host USL League One’s FC Naples in the final group match of the Prinx Tires USL Cup on Saturday, July 11 at 7:30 p.m. ET. The club has already locked up their spot in the Quarterfinals of the tournament set to be played on August 12 but will look to rebound from this week’s defeat and finish the group stage with a perfect four victories.
“The message when we were 15 games unbeaten was, we’re not the best team in the world. Now because we’ve been beaten at home, we’re not the worst team in the world, right? We just have to keep getting better and well learn from this tonight and get better for next week,”
Scoring Summary
LEX – Zengue (Rodrigues), 12’
LEX – Firmino (Goodrum), 14’
LEX – Epps (Molloy), 44’
TBR – Vivi (Ostrem), 78’
LEX – Henry-Scott (Molloy), 86’
Caution Summary
TBR – Schneider (Yellow Card), 45+3’
TBR – Archer (Yellow Card), 45+3’
TBR – Dossantos (Yellow Card), 90’
Stats Summary: TBR / LEX
Shots: 27 / 8
Shots on Goal: 6 / 5
Saves: 3 / 3
Corner Kicks: 12 / 2
Fouls Conceded: 13 / 10
Offside: 0 / 4
Possession: 56.8 / 43.2
Lineups
TBR: Waite, Acoff (Vivi, 46’), Archer (Leerman, 46’), Dossantos, Ostrem, Cruz, Schneider, Perez (Dolabella, 46’), Oliveira, Cicerone (Micaletto, 77’), Myers (Conway, 70’)
TBR Bench: Kachurak, Leerman, Dolabella, Hilton, Micaletto, Vivi, Conway, Henderlong
LEX: Semmle, Zengue, (Hafferty, 70’) Ordonez, Brown, Greene, Ferri, Molloy, Firmino, Rodrigues (Scott, 70’), Epps (Adedokun, 63’), Goodrum (Henry-Scott, 90+1’)
LEX Bench: Thompson, Caborn, Hafferty, Muir, Henry-Scott, Adedokun, Scott
