The Charlotte Eagles moved to 3–0–0 on Thursday night against Tobacco Road FC (1–2–1), as Kelvin Omondi continued his torrid start to the season with three goals in the first 30 minutes. Ryan Williams added a fourth goal in the 60th minute after a Toros goal from Jon Ray in the 53rd gave the home team a shred of hope, and the game ended that way, 4–1 to the visitors.

The goals came quickly for the Eagles, even with los Toros having more of the ball in the first half. In the fourth minute, Omondi started his show by picking up a loose ball and getting a lucky deflection to see the ball roll past TRFC keeper John Hawthorne.

Tobacco Road didn’t let the early goal get them down, as they continued to have more possession, but Eagles keeper James Pyle still wasn’t tested often enough. Instead, Omondi scored a second for Charlotte in the 28th minute off a counter-attack, as Joao Costa made a nice move to get free down the left side and passed across to an open Omondi for his brace. 2–0.

Omondi added another just two minutes later to earn the hat trick and essentially finish off the game in the first half hour. 3–0.

There were of course still 60 minutes left to play, and the two sides battled til the end with the drumming support of the Bright Leaf Battalion urging the home side on. Jon Ray added a goal in the 53rd minute for los Toros, battling in the box and putting one past James Pyle, but Ryan Williams stopped any hope of a comeback with his… uh… totally 100% onside…. goal in the 60th minute. Totally onside.

I mean, yeah, that’s offside. No doubt. Ryan Williams on the far right, the ball headed to him there in the middle. Think BLB has something to complain about there. Regardless, 4–1 was the score with just under 30 minutes left (can we talk about the countdown clock, Tobacco Road? come on now).

But that goal really put the game to bed, and the teams played out the final 30. It wasn’t until the 90th minute that anything exciting happened, though things got increasingly testy between the two sides. That drama boiled over in the first minute of stoppage time, as a hard foul and a terrible reaction led to a straight red card for Eagles substitute Kosi Nwafornso.

No love lost between Durham and Charlotte on Thursday night, but the points went to the visitors. Their rematch is set for June 17th in Charlotte.

Up next, Tobacco Road travels to Greensboro to face the struggling Carolina Dynamo tomorrow at 7pm, and the Eagles welcome a strong Myrtle Beach Mutiny side to Charlotte tomorrow at 7pm as well. A quick turnaround for both teams, but this is life in the PDL.

Good luck to both sides, we’ll have recaps of both games here at Soccer ‘n’ Sweet Tea next week. Make sure to follow us on Twitter for game updates, and thanks again to Bright Leaf Battalion for the photos.