CHARLESTON, S.C. – As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.

For the Charleston Battery on Saturday night, Taylor Mueller’s late goal that originated on the practice field arrived at the perfect time as the side took a 2-1 win against Southern Derby Cup rivals Wilmington Hammerheads FC at MUSC Health Stadium.

“We’ve done that so, so many times, Justin and me,” Mueller said. “I actually switched with [Shawn Ferguson], we were switching every time. He’d go near post, I’d go far-post, and vice-versa. Justin always whips in a great ball to the near-post guy, and it’s just awesome with the timing. I did it against Coastal in preseason, we’ve done it in training. He put in a great ball, put the perfect touch on it, and luckily the ‘keeper was sleeping just a little bit.”

The goal capped a strong sequence of pressure that saw the Battery pressing for a winner against the last club to defeat them on home turf in a USL contest almost 23 months ago to the day. Wilmington held on manfully for much of the final 30 minutes, but wasn’t able to hold on long enough to maintain its undefeated start to the season.

“You’ve got to give credit to them,” said Battery Coach Mike Anhaeuser. “We got the early goal, and I actually thought we had chances to open the doors and get things running, but they shut us down a little bit. They’ve changed a lot of things to be a lot more physical and more defensive, and they counter with a forward and he’s a handful. They’ve done a good job.”

Wilmington’s physicality also played a role as they looked for a late equalizer, mostly from set pieces. New addition Matthew Barnes-Homer put the ball in the back of the net on one chance, but only after the referee ruled Battery goalkeeper Alex Tambakis had been fouled in the build-up to the shot.

“They were just coming at me,” Tambakis said. “They weren’t even looking at the ball. I was going strong also, but two against one is definitely a foul.”

That left Mueller’s goal as the winner. After scoring late in the club’s opening game of the 2015 season against Toronto FC II, the center back brought another smile to his coach’s face on Saturday as the Battery’s undefeated streak ran to 27 matches.

“Beautiful,” Anhaeuser said. “We talked about the timing, and Taylor, you could see it from the sidelines. He made the run. He started in the middle and the guy, he just left it open. [Portillo] played it right on his head, and Taylor, he’s fantastic at getting on those.”