— A couple of noteworthy events occurred in the 71st minute of the Carolina RailHawks win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies Saturday night at WakeMed Soccer Park. First, RailHawks midfielder Nazmi Albadawi sized up a shot from 20 yards out that he planted past Rowdies goalkeeper Matt Pickens to push Carolina’s final margin of victory to 4-1.

As the RailHawks celebrated their largest goal output in NASL play this season, Tampa Bay exercised their final substitution: former American phenom Freddy Adu made his 2016 NASL debut, coming on in place of former England international and West Ham United star Joe Cole.

Only in the NASL.

Many believe the etymology of “Tampa” derives from the Calusa Native American term for “sticks on fire.” It’s the RailHawks who were afire on this humid July evening, snapping a seven-match regular season winless skid. Indeed, Carolina’s four goals tonight exceeded the total number of goals (3) the club scored over that seven-game ebb. The last NASL team the RailHawks defeated? The Tampa Bay Rowdies, 3-1, back on April 23.

The newest RailHawk christened his Carolina debut in the 11th minute. An Albadawi corner kick found the head of forward Matt Fondy, who arrived in Carolina two weeks ago on transfer from the Jacksonville Armada. Fondy’s nod found cord to put the RailHawks up 1-0. It’s not just Fondy’s first goal for the RailHawks, but also his first outside of the USL in his five-year pro career. The assist by Albadawi is his sixth this season, tying him for the NASL lead.

The Rowdies equalized in the 19th minute, when right back Drew Beckie was whistled for a penalty after Eric Avila went down easily just inside the area. Georgi Hristov converted the penalty kick to knot the score at 1-1.

Carolina had the better of the first-half chances, stymied only by four terrific saves from Pickens. In the 32nd minute, Carolina midfielder Matt Watson got behind the Rowdies’ back line, but Pickens saved Watson’s 1-v-1 attempt. In the 41st, a cross by Austin da Luz found Brian Shriver rushing far post, but Pickens somehow stoned Shriver’s point-blank blast.

After halftime, the RailHawks reclaimed the lead when Tampa Bay defender Stefan Antonijevic took down Fondy inside the box in the 54th minute. Shriver placed his PK below a diving Pickens for the 2-1 lead.

Four minutes later, the Rowdies picked up another penalty when Frankie Sanfilippo put an arm on a cross by Fondy in the area. Albadawi did the honors in the 59th minute, slotting his PK in the same spot as Shriver for the 3-1 advantage. Albadawi’s brace in the 71st accounted for the 4-1 final score.

Rowdies manager Stuart Campbell, who was missing starting center backs Tamika Mkandawire and Neill Collins, accepted his team’s loss, even if he disputed at least one of their penalties.

“I thought ours was clear cut, and that’s not me being biased,” Campbell said. “Their first one I thought was very close. The ball came across, and I thought Stefan got a touch on the ball. There was a coming together, and I thought that was a very hard decision by the referee. And then the one where [Sanfilippo] slid across and it hit his arm, I honestly couldn’t tell from my vantage point, so I won’t comment on that either way.”

Albadawi, Carolina’s team captain, met the media after the match wearing the countenance of a person recently relieved of a thousand-pound weight on his chest.

“Tonight, I thought we played fantastic,” Albadawi said. “We kept the ball, and I thought they looked tired 30 minutes in with us moving the ball around so well.”

Albadawi also attributed some of tonight’s change to the insertion of Fondy into the lineup, finally giving the RailHawks a forward with a nose for goal.

“Today, we had a lot of numbers going forward,” Albadawi continued. “We played with two up top, which is a little different. But both of them love to get in the box. Now we have four quality strikers on our team, and all of them can score goals. Two of them tonight did a wonderful job getting in the box, and both got a goal. And I like making deep runs into the box, kind of overloading it as well. When we do that, we’re very dangerous.”

RailHawks manager Colin Clarke was also effusive in praise for his newest acquisition.

“[Fondy] is a center forward who loves to get in front of goal, make runs across defenders and put them under pressure,” Clarke said. “He works his ass off and makes people better because of that. He loves to score goals, and I think tonight will be the first of many.”

During the first half of tonight’s game, West Ham United was training on Field 3 adjacent to the WakeMed Soccer Stadium, The RailHawks host West Ham, and hopefully a sold-out crowd ,Tuesday in an international friendly. Carolina returns to NASL play July 16 when it visits the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

Clarke hopes Saturday’s win is the line of demarcation for a new, more positive RailHawks streak.

“We’ve been under a lot of pressure, let’s be honest,” Clarke said. “It’s not been an easy time. Four games into the season, we felt very, very good. Then we let things slip … and it snowballs from there, and that sort of grinds you down. I think the players felt like that. Then you have the [midseason] break, and you hope to refresh and come back. Then we go to Minnesota and … not a good result.

“So to come here tonight, pressure on at home, big week for us …. we sat down this week and said this is what we need to do. And you have to buy into it, and they did.”

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

CAR: Sylvestre, Beckie, Moses, Marcelin, Mensing, Watson, Albadawi, Shipalane (Ceballos, 68’), Shriver (Miller 78’), da Luz, Fondy (Hassan, 82’)

TBR: Pickens, Sanfilippo, King, Antonijevic, Burgos, Avila (Nanchoff, 64’), Ramirez, Guerra (Heinemann, 63’), Cole (Adu, 71’), Alhassan, Hristov

GOALS

CAR: Fondy, 11’ (Albadawi); Shriver (PK); Albadawi (PK)

TBR: Hristov (PK)

CAUTIONS

CAR: Hassan, 86’

TBR: Guerra, 22’

EJECTIONS

CAR: ---

TBR: ---

ATTENDANCE: 4,176