May 28, 2022 – United Soccer League One (USL1) – North Carolina FC News Release
CARY, NC – North Carolina FC advanced into second place in USL League One standings with a 2-1 win over the visiting Richmond Kickers on Saturday night. Recovering an early 1-0 deficit, the North Carolina side relied on a first half brace from Garrett McLaughlin to secure three points and climb up the table. With two goals scored in tonight’s contest, McLaughlin once again leads the Golden Boot race having tallied six goals on the season. Emiliano Terzaghi recorded the lone goal for the Kickers.
“I’m extremely pleased with the way the guys turned around a poor start to the game, a poor first 15-20 minutes,” said Head Coach John Bradford following the match. “We felt loose, but the guys were able to mentally put that behind them and start finding their way a little bit. Something we’ve been preaching is that consecutive goals win games. Rarely do we score a goal and then immediately score another goal, it’s usually more of a back and forth and whoever scores the last goal wins the game. It was nice to have that response in the first half and a really good defensive effort in the second half. Good job to the boys on being able to see out a good result.”
“It was a great team win,” said McLaughlin. “The message all week was to play a complete game and to get a consecutive win, and it feels awesome to have done both.”
Terzaghi opened the scoring in tonight’s match, putting away his fifth goal of the season in the 13th minute of play to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage. NCFC’s response came in the 36th minute, capitalizing on a corner kick taken by Luis Arriaga. Finding the head of McLaughlin in the box, the striker’s slight redirection was enough to slip past Richmond goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald and level the score at 1-1. Arriaga picked up his second assist of the season on the play.
Just six minutes later, Jaden Servania was taken down in the Richmond box, drawing a penalty kick….