The roster updates from the Cary offices of the Carolina RailHawks have been trickling in. There have been heartening re-signings, most notably that of quicksilver Guyanese winger Gregory Richardson. Also back for another season: stalwart defensive midfielder Amir Lowery, goalkeeper Eric Reed, the aggressive midfielders Brian Plotkin and Joseph Kabwe, and defenders Caleb Norkus and Mark Schulte. Right back Greg Shields—currently on loan to Partick Thistle of the Scottish second division (according to the gratifyingly transparent Web site of the Glaswegian club, we know that his loan expires March 31)—seems to be slated for a return, as well.
Today brought two pieces of news. First was the surprising retirement of 2009 team defender of the year Jeremy Tolleson. Only 27 years old, the Atlanta native has elected to hang up his boots and become a missionary in Honduras. Tolleson began last season on the sidelines, recuperating from a foot injury. His return came at a fortuitous time, however, when central defender Jack Stewart was lost for the season with a broken leg. Tolleson subsequently partnered with Schulte to anchor the league’s best defense; despite being only 5-foot-9, he effectively positioned himself to snuff out attack after attack, and also proved to be a dangerous attacking weapon with his long balls forward (3:18).
It’s disappointing to lose a player of his caliber, but one can’t help but be impressed by his willingness to walk away from a sport that has surely dominated his life for 20 years. Although it’s true that Division 2 soccer players in America are paid little more than missionaries (and perhaps D2 soccer players are secular missionaries, spreading love for a game that pays them less than they could make doing almost anything else), it still comes as a start to fans that an athlete could have a calling above playing sports for a living. Our hat is off to you, Mr. Tolleson, and Godspeed.
Tolleson’s departure will intensify interest in whether Stewart will return to the club. Continue reading »
RailHawks midfielder Joseph Kabwe plays the ball as Ansu Toure defends. (photo by Rich Bostwick)
WAKEMED SOCCER PARK/ CARY—Bummer. It was a lovely evening for soccer, sunny and mild in early fall. Just as it’s a little early for the leaves to change color and drop from the trees, it was a little early for the RailHawks’ remarkable season to end.
But end it did, as an exhausted and increasingly desperate squad failed to put the ball in the net against the seventh-seeded Vancouver Whitecaps, finishing with a nil-nil draw. The RailHawks needed a 1-0 victory just to get to penalty kicks, but the Cary XI closed their season by failing to score in 180 minutes and two home-and-home legs against a bigger and more experienced, playoff-hardened Vancouver side.
By the end, the RailHawks were in a 4-4-2 and throwing everyone forward. “We had chances in the first half and didn’t take them,” coach Martin Rennie said. “It made it a little more difficult. We started to go more direct.
“When you go more direct, you need the ball to bounce your way and it didn’t—which usually isn’t the way we play,” Rennie said. “We’re usually much more thought-through, much more precise. But once we weren’t getting the goal, I think maybe we began to panic a little bit, which made it more difficult to break them down.”
“You’ve got to credit Vancouver,” center back and captain Mark Schulte said. “They knew what they had to do: They had to shut us down—they sat in [on us].”
In truth, the RailHawks showed little of the squad that scored 43 goals in USL-1 league play. They launched 12 shots, but Whitecaps keeper Jay Nolly only needed to make four saves.
It was one save in particular that would prove to put the kibosh on the season. Continue reading »
Just in from the USL home office: Caleb Norkus and Sallieu Bundu have spots on Week 14’s team of the week for their performances in the RailHawks’ 1-0 victory over the Charleston Battery on Saturday.
Among the contributions of Norkus, who started the game at right back: He drew a crucial foul from the Battery’s Randi Patterson, who kicked him in the head. Amazingly, Patterson was sent off, and minutes later, the RailHawks exploited the man-deficit with a goal from Bundu, off an assist from Josh Gardner.
The league’s player of the week was Ricardo Sanchez of the cellar-dwelling Minnesota Thunder, who annihilated the Montreal Impact 3-0. That game also produced the weekend’s most notorious low-light.
This continues an unfortunate trend for Canadian football teams (maybe it’s the universal health care!). Last month, the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Wesley Charles and Charles Gbeke also got into an on-field fracas, this time after the two of them muffed a scoring opportunity. Here’s the video (scroll ahead to 7:35).
Guess who the RailHawks play this Friday night, at home and on national television (Fox Soccer Channel, that is)? The boys from Vancouver. Kickoff is 8 p.m.
USLLIVE.com—The RailHawks burned a lot of carbon on a flight to Minnesota on Sunday afternoon that yielded very little in the way of ecologically correct, status-boosting offsets.
The ’Hawks came into the game in second place with 23 points. Eighteen of those points had come from six victories over the bottom four teams in the league: Austin, Miami, Minnesota and Cleveland. A victory over the Minnesota Thunder Sunday would have taken their record over Rust Belt/ Iron Range opponents to 6-0. Instead, a ghastly first half (in which they were outshot 8-2) gave the Thunder all the openings they would need for their first victory, 2-0.
To complete the waste of the afternoon (not to mention the jet fuel), Kupono Low received a garbage-time red card and will be unavailable for this Friday’s trip to Austin. Continue reading »
The biggest news out of last night’s RailHawks’ 2-0 victory over the USL-2 Wilmington Hammerheads was the return of Matt Watson, who scored 15 minutes after entering the game in the second half.
Watson, last year’s team MVP, joined the squad yesterday after helping his indoor side, the Baltimore Blast, to the MISL championship. Furthermore, his first child was born yesterday in Baltimore.
Although the team’s press release pointedly says last night’s squad shouldn’t be considered a second team, it notes that few of the players in the evening’s lineup saw action in last Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Thunder. Among them: Hamed Diallo, Gavin Glinton and Brian Plotkin (the Hawks’ release inadvertently omitted Plotkin).
Other players on last night’s lineup included the back four of Jeremy Tolleson, Caleb Norkus, Paul Ritchie and trialist Brad Rusin. Midfielders included Plotkin, Glinton and Watson. Players seeing minutes up top included Aaron King and John Cunliffe (who scored the game’s second goal in the 82nd minute). Caleb Patterson manned the goal.
Midfielder and free-kick specialist Steven Curfman has parted ways with the RailHawks, according to Mike Blake of the N&O’s SWakeSports blog. Although Curfman’s name is still on the roster as of 7 p.m., Blake’s sources assure him that the one-year veteran and Wake Forest grad has been dropped from the squad.
It’s not a surprising development in light of Curfman’s scarcity on the pitch thus far this preseason and the continuing surplus of players still on trial. However, combined with the departure of Santiago Fusilier, the RailHawks have now cut off nearly all of their hometown links. Only Raleigh native and UNC grad Caleb Norkus remains of the Old North State contingent.
Curfman, who had a stellar career at Wake Forest, scored two goals in 30 appearances last year.
Kyle on "UNC holds off pesky NCCU with big second half, awaits selection committee": Mike Potter does Triangle sports fans a wonderful service by providing a unique perspective of events that may not otherwise receive media coverage. Thanks Mike for all you have done and continue to do in your outstanding career as a journalist and an ambassador for the Triangle.
caniacgirl on "Peters and pipes pickpocket a peck of prickly Penguins": I absolutely love the headline! Games like this one definitely reignite the little bit of playoff hope I have left in me. It should be an interesting few weeks that's for sure.
Greg Nccu Student on "Miller leads NCCU to 11th victory": There are a lot of Rumors on Campus about Joanna Miller leaving NCCU next year. Please Coach Robinson, We need to keep this player from gong to another College.
