On a night when he was honored by the team and supporters for surpassing 100 appearances with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Keith Savage came through in a big way. His goal early in the second half against the rival Fort Lauderdale Strikers sparked the Rowdies attack, leading to a second from Joe Cole moments later. In the end, though, two standout saves from Matt Pickens saved the night at Al Lang Stadium.

It’s safe to say the opening 45 minutes of Saturday’s match never threatened to reach the same level of excitement that the meeting with the Cosmos brought two weeks ago. Both sides looked tentative and rusty throughout the first half.

Perhaps with a little extra motivation due to the celebratory atmosphere in the stands, Savage took his chances with two first-time efforts that he failed to wrangle on frame.

Fort Lauderdale’s attack was equally frustrated and only managed to produce several long-range efforts when the Rowdies back line held firm.

Fortunately the tempo picked up considerably right out of the gate in the second half, with the Rowdies benefiting almost immediately as the aggressors. Savage’s perseverance paid off in the 50th minute when Cole lifted a cross to the back post for him. The veteran midfielder deftly controlled the bouncing service and fired a shot that rocketed just under the crossbar to beat keeper Bruno.

The goal was Savage’s first for the Rowdies in two years. His last tally came back in August of the 2014 season in a 3-1 win over the Cosmos. After so many setbacks recently, fate finally seemed to be on Savage’s side.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” Savage said. “The stars aligned and it was meant to be. … I couldn’t believe it came to me. It’s fortunate because I just kind of stood there and it came right to my left foot. I’m thankful it went in.”

The Rowdies took the confidence from Savage’s finish and continued to press the visitors in order to notch a second goal only seven minutes later. Cole dished the ball to Georgi Hristov on a breakaway down the left side and the Bulgarian penetrated into the box before laying off a return pass for Cole to one-time into the back of the net.

“It was a great ball from Georgi, and he’s a great professional because he’s been scoring goals for us and he’s led the line well,” Cole said. “He worked his socks off tonight. I’m pleased for him that he got the assist. It was a great little run and he’s got that composure to pick his head up.”

Fort Lauderdale found a way back into the match through substitute Jose Angulo, who entered the match in the same minute that the Rowdies doubled their lead.

The attacker began to cause some stress at the back and finally pulled one back for his side with a perfectly-timed run in the 71st minute. Midfielder provided the assist with a chip over the back line and Angulo held up enough to stay onside and flick the ball past a helpless Pickens.

Tampa Bay’s lead was put in further jeopardy only four minutes later when captain Tamika Mkandawire was guilty of a handball inside the box to give the Strikers an opportunity to equalize. Pickens rose to the occasion, though, diving to his left to deny Adrianinho’s attempt from the spot.

Pickens came up with another heroic effort to save all three points in the 89th minute as the Rowdies desperately tried to close out the match. It was Angulo again, this time producing an acrobatic strike in the air on a corner kick that required Pickens to stand tall and make a point-blank save.

“I’m definitely pleased with the result,” Head Coach Stuart Campbell said. “After two tough losses on the road, it’s not going to be pretty. You want to come and win three or four-nil, but it’s not like that. You’ve got to grind out a result. The players showed great character tonight. We asked for it before the match and they delivered.”

Next week the Rowdies hit the road again for another two-game road trip. They’ll be hoping to claim better results than they did on their latest road trip, but they’ll need to get by talent squads in New York and Minnesota to do so.