Although Dante Leverock and his Harrisburg City Islanders teammates and the Rochester Rhinos ultimately played to a 1-1 draw, it was a positive result for the Islanders as they extended their unbeaten streak to three games at FNB Field.
The theme for the first 80 minutes of the match was missed opportunities. Each team had a bevy of chances to grab the opening goal, but failed to convert. City’s undefeated streak was on the line when they gave up another late goal to the Rhinos in the 83rd minute.
City kept their streak going when Shawn McLaws took a corner in stoppage time and put it perfectly on target for Brett Jankouskas to head home the tying goal.
This was the third game in a row that City was able to come away with at least one point, their longest stretch of the season. City’s seven points in three games is also their most on the season.
City controlled much of the first half with a handful of quality chances to break open the scoring. Jose Barril had the first chance of the game, but rang his hard heavy shot right off of the far post.
Cardel Benbow had the best chance of the half after making a series of moves to open himself up to the goal. He lined up his shot with only the keeper to beat, but pushed the shot just wide of the same post that Barril hit minutes’ prior.
Despite outshooting and out-chancing the Rhinos, the Islanders went into the locker still knotted in a scoreless draw.
Rochester pushed back early in the second half with their first scoring chance of the game as Keasel Broome had to stand his ground against a rushing Rhino forward to make the save and keep the game scoreless.
The Rhinos kept the pressure on the Islanders’ backline with a series of scoring chances. They finally cashed in to open up the scoring in the 83rd minute off of a Bradley Kamdem Fe cross that soared over the defense and met the head of Sean Totsch for his first goal of the season.
It looked bleak for City, but after pressing forward and earning a couple of corner kicks they found the quality to get the equalizer. McLaws delivered a low hard cross into the box, which Jankouskas was able to direct on goal and in the net for his second goal in two games.
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