Josh Kirkland snags another brace at home, O’Dwyer scores the third.
The Kickers earned a 3-3 draw in front of a 5023 person crowd at City Stadium tonight. Homegrown player, Josh Kirkland, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia earned his second brace in as many games at City Stadium. Chandler O’Dwyer snagged the go-ahead goal in the 80th minute.
In the 3rd minute the Kickers took the lead. Nils Seufert won the ball with two defenders on him and chipped a ball up to the Greenville backline where Josh Kirkland was lying in wait. With the ball through, Kirkland beat the center back and took off, striking the ball from the top of corner of the six and sending it into the far upper 90 over the keeper.
The Kickers would push again in the 29th minute off a free kick Emiliano Terzaghi earned. Maxi Schenfeld sent the lofted ball into the mix and found the feet of Terzaghi but the shot went just wide.
In the next few minutes, Greenville found two goals off the feet of Connor Evans and Ben Zakowski to give the Triumph the lead. The first fell to the feet of Evans after a world class save from James Sneddon, diving from edge to edge of the goal mouth but just couldn’t get cleared in time.
The Kickers reclaimed momentum with five minutes left in the half. With build from the midfield, Darwin Espinal took off up the left side, leaving defenders in the dust. Pushing towards the baseline, Darwin got in the box and crossed to Terzaghi who found Kirkland waiting on the far post to sweep it in and tie the match.
Coming out in the second half, the fight stayed pretty well balanced through the first 15 minutes. Kirkland continued to pester left back Tyler Polak and the Kickers attack kept pushing. Terzaghi won the ball again just outside the box in the 64th minute. The shot was headed straight for the far top corner but Rankenburg was able to get to it just in time and catch the attempt.
In the 80th, the Kickers would break through again. Earning a corner, Seufert sent a beautiful ball in to the back post. Gui Franca headed the ball across to Chandler O’Dwyer who got in a proper position for it and headed it into the back of the net to take the lead.
Greenville found another goal in the 84th to tie the match at the close of the game and the Kickers continued to push but just didn’t find another late go ahead.
The Kickers play on the road through May until the very last day of the month when they return to City Stadium to take on North Carolina FC in the USL Jagermeister Cup on May 31st. Get your tickets now so you don’t miss the excitement
