Battery Two Wins Away From Repeat

The Charleston Battery had an edge going into the first round of the USL Pro playoffs. They were playing at home in Blackbaud Stadium.

They had lost only once this season at Blackbaud, running up a 9-1-4 mark. Now make that 10 wins on home turf.

The defending USL PRO champions took the first step towards successfully defending that title with a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Blues in the quarterfinals of postseason play.

[show_disconnected][show_to accesslevel=’Subscriber’] Dane Kelly and Mike Azira provided the goals. For Kelly it was his 12th goal of the season. Azira, who seems to score goals when they mean the most, now has six.

A year ago it was Azira, who had not scored in the regular season, scoring the game-winner for a 1-0 win over the Wilmington Hammerheads in the championship match.

“Mike just has a knack of scoring big goals for us,” said Charleston coach Mike Anhaeuser. “He’s very solid defensively, but he has that little bit of quality to push forward and create scoring chances, not only for the other guys, but for himself. It was a beautiful goal from a fantastic cross from Quinton (Griffith).”

But for the next round, and perhaps for the rest of the playoffs, the Battery will be looking at Blackbaud in the rearview mirror.

Next up is a trip to Florida for a meeting with the Orlando City Lions, in one semifinal match on Aug. 30. Orlando, second during the regular season, shutout the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, 5-0, in their quarterfinal game.

Long Tan and Renan Boufleur scored quickly in the opening five minutes, and the Lions cruised from there for the win.

On the other half of the bracket top-seeded Richmond edged the Dayton Dutch Flyers 1-0 on Joseph Ngwenya’s goal. The shutout was the 11th for Kickers’ goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra, who was recently honored as the USL PRO Goalkeeper of the Year after posting a 0.863 goals allowed average.

The Kickers will host the Charlotte Eagles in the other semifinals on Aug. 31. The Eagles, seeded fifth, upset #4 Harrisburg 3-1 behind goals from Christian Ramirez, Jorge Herrera and Samuel Asante.