— When the Ottawa Fury last visited WakeMed Soccer Park in April to face the Carolina RailHawks, it was the opening match of the 2015 NASL season for both teams. The RailHawks emerged victorious, apparently propelling them into another hunt for an elusive league championship, and consigning the Fury to another long march towards regular season mediocrity.

What a difference (nearly) six months makes.

Saturday in rainy Cary, the Fury saturated the RailHawks with a torrent of goals on their way to a 3-1 victory. Ottawa extended its current unbeaten streak to seven games and has only one loss in its last 20 matches. Even more impressive, the Fury has won six consecutive road games, including three this week.

Fury striker Tommy Heinemann muscled past RailHawks Nazmi Albadawi and Connor Tobin in the 19th minute, freeing himself for 1-v-1 with Carolina keeper Akira Fitzgerald, who already had two saves on the match, Fitzgerald got a hand on Heinemann’s shot but couldn’t keep it from trickling across the goal line for an early 1-0 lead.

In the 33rd minute, an errant deflection by Tiyi Shipalane bounded to a fortuitous Heinemann behind the RailHawks’ back line. Heinemann blasted a shot across Fitzgerald into the far netting to double the Fury lead.

Ottawa dispensed with The Most Dangerous Score in Soccer in the waning seconds of the opening half. Paulo Jr. drove off the left flank past some perfunctory RailHawks defense before rifling his shot into the same spot as Heinemann’s second goal for a 3-0 intermission advantage.

After making two halftime substitutions, the RailHawks got a goal back beginning in the 51st minute when Fury defender Rafael Falvey took down Nacho Novo in the box. Novo slotted his ensuing penalty kick below a diving Romuald Peiser to cut the Ottawa lead to 3-1. It was Novo’s team-leading ninth goal this year,

Referee Daniel Fitzgerald ignored an apparent handball by Falvey in the 58th minute. While the RailHawks continued to press forward, the Fury’s defense stood fast to preserve the road win.

Adding ignominy to insult, Novo earned a literally last-minute second yellow card for simulation, suspending him for the RailHawks’ next home game in two weeks against the Jacksonville Armada.

Novo’s first booking was for attempting to yank the ball from Peiser’s mitts after Novo’s PK goal. Both bookings irked RailHawks manager Colin Clarke.

“I know what’s going to happen when the ball goes in the net—there’s going to be a scramble for it,” Clarke said. “You, as a referee, have to read and understand that. If the goalkeeper’s holding the ball and doesn’t want to give it up, blow the whistle and get the ball up the field.

“The second [yellow card], the referee tells me is because Nacho dived on the play. That’s a second yellow with 15 seconds to play at the end of the game? Again, try to use common sense and ref the game and be smart about it. We’ve lost the game, it’s 3-1. Blow your whistle for full time and move on.”

Ottawa manager Marc Dos Santos announced last week that he was leaving the Fury after this season for an as-yet undisclosed coaching position in Major League Soccer. Dos Santos managed the Montreal Impact from 2009 to 2011 before taking the Ottawa job last year, and he’s has faced off against the Carolina RailHawks on many occasions over the better part of five seasons as a Division II gaffer.

Dos Santos was effusive in his nostalgic praise for the RailHawks and their facility. In fact, Saturday was his first-ever win at WakeMed Soccer Park.

“This is a place that I respect enormously,” Dos Santos said. “This is personal. I know with any team I brought to WakeMed Soccer Park it was going to be hard. This is my first win in Carolina, so I know how tough it is to win here. I have a lot of respect for Colin Clarke, a lot of respect for [former RailHawks manager] Martin Rennie, a lot of respect for this club. It’s a fantastic set-up, a fantastic stadium and a fantastic city for soccer. I’m going to move away from the NASL for a time, but I’ll maybe come back. I told Colin this isn’t the last game we’re coaching against each other, for sure.”

The RailHawks have just one win in 10 matches on the trot. Saturday was the seventh game out of Carolina’s last nine that it has surrendered three goals in a game.

After the match, Clarke spoke to the media over the din of rejoicing opponents echoing through the adjoining wall, an increasingly familiar sound at WakeMed Stadium.

“The simple answer to your question is ‘no,’” Clarke said when asked if he’s ever encountered this sort of adversity in his long coaching career. “But I’m in it, I’m enjoying the challenge and it’s going to make me better as a coach and a person to fight our way out of this.”

The high-flying Fury (12-9-4, 45 pts.) sit atop the NASL’s fall and combine season tables Meanwhile, the RailHawks’ (6-8-11, 26 pts.) compounding free fall has now landed them at the bottom of the fall season standings, tied with Indy Eleven, and just one point above last place in the combined season table.

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

CAR: Fitzgerald; Wagner (Da Silva, 46’), King (Osaki, 80’), Tobin, Low, Shipalane, Hlavaty, Albadawi, da Luz, Bracalello (Engel, 46’), Novo

OTT: Peiser; Richter, Alves, Falvey, Trafford; Beckie, Ryan, Ubiparipovic (Albayrak, 85’); Paulo Junior (Haworth, 80’) Heinemann, Minatel (Wiedeman, 73’)

GOALS

CAR: Novo, 51’ (PK)

OTT: Heinemann, 19’ (unassisted), Heinemann, 33’ (unassisted), Paulo Junior, 45’ (unassisted)

CAUTIONS

CAR: Novo (52’), Tobin (83’), Novo (90’)

OTT: Peiser (70’)

EJECTIONS

CAR: Novo (90’)

OTT: ---

ATTENDANCE: 3,374