— One of the more interesting statistics of the NASL season that North Carolina FC, although third in the league in goals scored, led the NASL in first-half goals with 19 coming into its tilt against Indy Eleven at WakeMed Soccer Park.

North Carolina FC took that advantage and ran with it Sunday, sprinting out to a four-goal first half on their way to a statement 5-0 victory over Indy Eleven. It’s NCFC’s first home win in the NASL fall season, but it also extends the team’s unbeaten run to three straight games with only one loss in their last eight.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a relief,” said NCFC manager Colin Clarke. “But we’ve had our troubles at home, and it’s good to get our first win in front of our home fans in the [NASL] fall season in an important game.”

North Carolina FC took the early lead in the tenth minute. Kareem Moses delivered a clothesline cross that found Brazlian loanee Renan Gorne, who maneuvered past defender Cory Miller and redirected the Under Armour orb past Indy goalkeeper Jon Busch for the 1-0 start.

North Carolina doubled its advantage in the 32nd minute. Nazmi Albadawi played give-and-go with Austin da Luz about 40 yards from goal before Albadawi embarked on a circuitous odyssey through, around and by multiple Indy Eleven defenders before pulling the trigger on a shot past Busch for the 2-0 lead.

The third NCFC goal came three minutes later thanks to an exquisite buildup that began with a midfield pirouette by da Luz before finding Gorne charging up the right flank. Gorne drew the last defender before unselfishly laying over to an unmarked Steven Miller in the goalmouth for the open putaway.

North Carolina made it four for the first 45 in the waning moments of the opening stanza. Indy’s Craig Henderson was whistled for a penalty after upending Albadawi in the area, and Gorne converted from the spot for the 4-0 lead at intermission. Gorne excitedly met fellow Brazilian and legend, Marta, the previous evening at the {{a href="story-16985951"}]North Carolina Courage’s match against the Orlando Pride. Now, his first-half brace gives him five goals in eight starts since joining NCFC on loan from Botafogo in early August.

The four-goal half is Carolina’s first since May 2015 at the Jacksonville Armada.

The second half was an exercise in time-churning, although Indy Eleven did manage six shots (which were six more than the visitor had in the first half). North Carolina midfielder Dre Fortune added the exclamation point in the final throes of the match with a free kick curler from 20 yards out that nestled into nylon for the final 5-0 tally.

Indy Eleven played without Eamon Zayed, Sinisa Ubiparipovic and Gerardo Torrado, who were recovering from knocks and hope to be available this week. North Carolina also didn’t have to deal with Justin Braun, who has bedeviled Carolina the past couple of years but is out with a season-ending injury.

“It’s one of those football matches when everything went right for them and everything went wrong for us,” said Indy Eleven manager Tim Hankinson. “Giving up four first-half goals is obviously a disaster defensively, and we didn’t possess the ball well enough to even create a chance in the first half.

"But it was also the story of a tired team that played Wednesday [playing] against a fresh team, and now we have to turn it around in two days against Puerto Rico.”

Moreover, while Indy Eleven comes and leaves Cary with two games in hand on NCFC, it also means Indy is playing multi-match weeks down the season stretch.

Or, as Hankinson said after Sunday’s loss, “Games in hand don’t really do much for you if you play like we did [today].”

Clarke again ran out a starting XI that featured Steven Miller at right wing, da Luz on the left, Moses at right back and Fortune stationed in the middle, among other tweaks. Sunday was the first time Clarke featured that lineup with a week’s rest on each side of the match.

“It’s a group that’s done very, very well every time it’s stepped on the field,” Clarke said. “We’ve conceded one goal in the last five games, and that was a 92nd minute header in Indy when we were down a man. So, we’re not conceding goals and we’re giving ourselves a chance to win games. It’s a very, very honest squad right now that is working hard for each other.”

It’s an important three points for North Carolina FC (10-9-9, 39 pts.), which buttresses its hold on the third position in the NASL combined season table. With four games left in NCFC’s regular season, the team hosts Puerto Rico FC on Saturday, October 7, a match originally scheduled in Puerto Rico but relocated to Cary in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

“When I look back at previous years, we’ve always had that one game that we needed to win to take that step and we failed in some of those,” Clarke said. “We’ve won in New York, and now we’ve backed that up by coming home with a magnificent performance.”

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

NCFC: Sylvestre (Robinson, 46’), Black, Tobin, Ibeagha, Moses, Miller, Kandziora (Akinyode, 65’), da Luz (Shipalane, 76), Fortune, Albadawi, Gorne

IND: Busch, Vukovic, Miller, Franco, Falvey (Watson-Siriboe, 46’), Thompson, Henderson, Ring (Keller, 46’), Speas (Ables, 65’), Goldsmith, Paulo Jr.

GOALS

NCFC: Gorne, 10’ (Moses); Albadawi, 32’ (da Luz); Miller, 35’ (Gorne)

IND: ---

CAUTIONS

NCFC: ---

IND: ---

EJECTIONS

NCFC: ---

IND: ---

ATTENDANCE: 4,209