North Carolina FC handed out 2,000 lucha libre masks to fans Saturday night in conjunction with Supporters Night at WakeMed Soccer Park. By the end of the evening, visiting Charlotte Independence was the group looking for masks to hide behind, as they were on the wrong end of a Southern Derby demolition, losing 6-2 to North Carolina FC.

“To be in a game where we score six goals in my first game with the club is a dream start,” said Zach Steinberger, who earned two goals and an assist making his NCFC debut.

“Hopefully we can use this as a catalyst to carry that momentum and push right into the playoffs.”

“It was a disgraceful second half on our part,” Charlotte Independence manager Mike Jeffries said. “We apologize to our fans who made the trip. To give away five goals in the second half is really poor.”

While the Independence have played three U.S. Open Cup ties at WakeMed Soccer Park, Saturday was their first league match in Cary. The Queen City visitors marked the occasion by grabbing the initial lead in the 24th minute when an unmarked Kevan George got on the end of a Sam Vines corner kick and poked his header past NCFC goalkeeper Alex Tambakis.

That’s the last lead Charlotte would see all night. North Carolina FC quickly equalized two minutes later, beginning with Tiyi Shipalane crossing the ball to Steinberger, who arrived on loan from Indy Eleven less than 48 hours earlier. Steinberger’s ensuing header was swatted down by Independence keeper Andrew Dykstra, but the Baby Whale scissor-kicked the rebound into goal to knot the scoreline at 1-1.

“The ball goes out wide, and I’m just trying to find an inch of space in the box,” Steinberger said. “I kinda made a mess of the header—if I didn’t score on the second attempt I would have pulled the hair out of my head. The goalkeeper kind of coughed it up right to me, and I did whatever I could to get it in the back of the net.”

“We scored the first goal and thought we played well early in the game,” Jeffries said. “We had two very good chances, we do get the first goal, and then four minutes later we’re conceding. That’s been our nature recently, and that’s not good enough.”

North Carolina FC hit the pitch running coming out of intermission, getting the lead for good in the 49th minute. Wuilito Fernandes, making his first league start his year, played a through ball ahead Steinberger, who drove end line and crossed to Steven Miller for an open net putaway. The Dead Whales made it three goals in the 51st minute when Miller returned the favor to Steinberger, as the latter headed in the former’s cross to give Steinberger a brace in his NCFC debut, literally before he has unpacked his bags from Indianapolis. Following the goal, Steinberger lept into the supporters section behind the goal, earning a yellow card for his exuberance.

“I wanted to go celebrate with the fans,” Steinberger said. “They were great in welcoming me on social media, and I appreciate that. I was glad that I was able to give back a victory at home against a local rival. The ref was super nice about it—I actually had no idea that was a yellow card offense.”

Matters became so cheeky that in the 66th minute, when a loose ball bounded into touch, that NCFC manager Colin Clarke, a former international Northern Ireland striker, casually flicked a header into the grandstands.

“That’s about all I can do now, is stick a header in the grandstands,” Clarke said. “I can’t kick it anymore, can’t move anymore.”

North Carolina found its fourth in the 51st minute when Shipalane centered to Austin da Luz, who took a few touches before uncorking a left-footer from distance that skimmed off Dykstra and into net. But NCFC wasn’t done, not by long shot. In the 74th minute, NCFC leading goal-scorer Daniel Rios buried a free kick from 24 yards out to up the lead to 5-1. Rios got his own brace four minutes later, when Miller delivered a cross into the goalmouth and Rios redirected his sliding putaway into goal.

The Independence got a final consolation goal when Jake Areman slipped a diving header past Tambakis in 85th minute to account for the final 6-2 scoreline. Rios had two more late chances at a hat trick, but a higher power extended divine mercy on the Independence.

North Carolina FC’s six goals is the first time the team has scored six or more goals in a league match since the Carolina RailHawks’ 9-0 win over Miami FC in August 2009. Meanwhile, Charlotte extends its winless skid to seven games. Clarke said that he believed if NCFC could notch a second goal, more could comes in bunches.

“We’ve been in those situations where you wonder where the next win is coming from,” Clarke said. “So, yeah, we talked about putting them under pressure and getting ahead, and then see what they’re made of. Luckily, we created more chances straight away and got the third and fourth pretty quick, so the game was pretty much over from there.”

Rios’ brace gives him 15 goals for the season, tied for third most in the USL. But the man of the match was Steinberger, who Clarke said he has tried to bring to North Carolina on several occasions over the past several years, dating back to before Steinberger joined the Houston Dynamo in 2015.

“I just always knew he was a good player, having played against him and seen him score goals against us,” Clarke said. “He’s a smart player and good kid, so when the opportunity arose where we thought we might be able to get him, we jumped at it.”

Steinberger said Saturday’s result was the welcome capper to a whirlwind week.

“We had a game in Indy Wednesday night against Toronto,” Steinberger recounted. “I walked into the coach’s office on Thursday around 2 p.m. and he mentioned there was an opportunity to go to North Carolina and get more consistent game time. I wasn’t super happy with the game time I was getting in Indy. With that said, it was a very talented team and hard to break into the starting XI. After training, my coach brought me in again and said, 'Hey, North Carolina wants an answer; they’re trying to get you on the roster for this weekend.' So I said, 'Let’s do it …' I was on a 7:30 flight that night, bags packed, and trained in the morning.”

North Carolina FC (9-7-9, 34 pts.) moves one point shy of a possible playoff spot with two consecutive home games coming next, beginning next Saturday, September 1 against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

“It was great for the fans, great support out there tonight,” Clarke said. “They were the ones who helped us get back to 1-1. You can hear them keeping the boys going, and we all got our reward tonight. It was a great night for the club.”

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

NC: Tambakis, Taylor, Fernandes, Tobin, Guillen, G. Smith, Miller, da Luz (Doue, 77’), Shipalane (Kandziora, 73’), Steinberger (Fortune, 81’), Rios

CLT: Dykstra, Duckett, Owundi, Johnson, Vines (Areman, 70’), Jordan (Mwape, 70’), Ekra, George, Martinez, Watson, Calvert (Perez, 83’)

GOALS

NC: Steinberger, 26’; Miller, 49’ (Steinberger); Steinberger, 51’ (Miller); da Luz, 69’ (Shipalane); Rios, 74’; Rios, 78’ (Miller)

CLT: George, 24’ (Vines); Areman, 85’ (Mwape)

CAUTIONS

NC: Fernandes, 36’; Miller, 38’; Steinberger, 51’

CLT: George, 32’; Owundi, 71’

EJECTIONS

NC: ---

CLT: ---

ATTENDANCE: 4,195