What started off as a stormy night in Durham turned into a wonderful night of soccer in the Bull City. From pouring rain to beautiful sunsets, this important match for Tobacco Road FC had its ups and downs, but los Toros came out winners 4–2 over the Hammerheads of Wilmington.

Tobacco Road came out playing strong in the first half. This might have been because they played the Hammerheads in a epic match just ten days before and knew what to expect.

Even though Wilmington is out of the USOC race, this was an important match for TRFC. Before this game, Tobacco Road needed to 2.6 points per game. They did the job and got 3. You can read more about that below (and then come back for the recap).

First Half: Tobacco Road is Ready

From the very first whistle, you could tell that the boys were ready to go, starting the attack off fast and and getting their first corner in the first five minutes. Then in the eighth minute, Nils Bruening attacked the left side of the box down deep and sent a light chip right over the goalie to put it over the line. A Hammerhead defender tried to save it but he got there too late.

In the 16th minute, Nils Bruening was again too fast and beat the defender and goalkeeper to the ball to send it in the net… but was called offsides.

In the 33rd, Alan Winn was showing off his passing and sent a nice pass to Eli Garner who was wide open in front of the goal, but he hit the goalkeeper square in the stomach. Three minutes later, Bruening received a great cross and had an impressive header, but the GK made an even more impressive dive to stop him. Bruening wouldn’t be denied: just moments later, Teddy Mullin put a fast pass in to Bruening who put that one away. 2–0.

Tobacco Road controlled the first half. The team did a great job in controlling the midfield game and holding possession. They also kept Wilmington on their toes early, really trying to press their attack. But one of the only negative things I have to say was that there were too many gimmies. The boys had at least 3 chances to score a goal when wide open but fell short on that. The score should’ve been 4–0 at the end of the first half. Seriously.

Second Half: Hammerheads try to respond

The first five minutes of the second half was the Wilmington team that I watched 10 days ago. They came out fast and ran right past every Tobacco R0ad defender and scored their first in the 46th to make it 2–1.

The Hammerheads also came out with a way more physical half. They started to attack more in the midfield and play faster. The fouls and yellow cards were going out like crazy too. Over 13 fouls were called, SIX yellow cards, and the ever so rare red card was thrown out too.

The first yellow card against Tobacco Road gave a penalty kick to Wilmington, but the gods were on our side, and the Hammerhead sent it wide right. After that it looked like as if Tobacco Road had finally woken up from halftime and started to play again.

Wilmington started to take advantage of the poor foul calling and got a few calls going in their favor. #12 for Wilmington started to grab hold of Eli Garner too much and proceeded with a shove to draw the red card. Can’t blame him for that frustration: Garner was passing him on the way to the goal all night long. But the Hammerheads were down a goal and down a man.

Eventually, Nils Bruening got his third goal of the night after Teddy Mullin’s shot bounced off the goalie and Nils finished it. A great night for him.

Even though TRFC was only able to hold the 3–1 lead for six minutes, as Wilmington made it interesting with a late goal to push it to 3–2, los Toros were able to finish the game with a goal from Zach Wright in the 90th minute for a 4–2 win.

Man Of The Match

Of course you have to give this to Nils Bruening.

A hat trick at home on a wet field is definitely the way to get the honors. Nils played great and attacked the ball well for the entire 90 minutes. Eli Garner could have earned it too though: he had a few wide open opportunities but wasn't able to score one himself. Eli and Nils were able to lead the team in shots on goal with 3 and 5 apiece.

It was a fun Saturday night in Durham. It’s sad that next weekend is the last home game on the season, but that’s going to be a big one. I will be at the game on Wednesday in Cary against NCFC U23 for round 3 of the RDU Derby before los Toros return to take on the Charlotte Eagles at 7pm on July 1st.