Following the path blazed by Hurricane Matthew up the eastern seaboard, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers arrived to sunny, Carolina blue skies for their match against the Carolina RailHawks Sunday afternoon at WakeMed Soccer Park. Originally scheduled for Saturday night, the game was rescheduled due to Matthew’s effects.

But the second arrivals from South Florida this weekend were far less potent than their predecessor, Hurricane Matthew, as the RailHawks stormed past the Strikers, 3-0.

Carolina played without Omar Bravo, who had a thigh injury in training. Connor Tobin missed a couple of days of practice last week due to off-field commitments, so RailHawks manager Colin Clarke went with Simon Mensing at center back.

The RailHawks struck first in the 25th minute. A short cross from Matt Fondy found Austin da Luz, who ducked between Geison Moura and Gale Agbossoumonde in the keeper box to head in the goal for a 1-0 lead. Da Luz celebrated his birthday with his fifth goal this year.

Carolina doubled their advantage in the 42nd minute when a Nazmi Albadawi took a quick chip free kick just outside the area as a gaggle of Strikers appeared to wait for the RailHawks to object to the distance of their wall from the ball. Albadawi found an unmarked Brian Shriver, who chested the half volley before planting his left booter past Striker goalkeeper Bruno Cardoso. It was Albadawi’s 10th assist this year, breaking the previous NASL single-season record.

“I looked back and Naz called my name” Shriver said. “He flipped it over the wall, I took it first touch and just tried to put it on goal.”

Striker manager Caio Zanardi spent the first half haranguing the fourth official in Portuguese, which continued until the official kindly informed Zanardi that he couldn’t understand what the coach was saying and he would need to register his complaints in English.

The RailHawks found their triple in the 82nd minute, when a cleared corner kick bounded out to Matt Watson just outside the area. Watson settled, then fired a laser past Bruno for the 3-0 final tally.

Carolina’s unheralded hero today was goalkeeper Brian Sylvestre, who made seven saves en route to his fifth clean sheet this year. Sylvestre’s 76.1 percent saves to shots faced ratio ranks second among all NASL goalkeepers, behind only FC Edmonton’s Matt VanOekel.

According to Zanardi, the Strikers last day of full training was Wednesday, due to the state of emergency declared in advance of Hurricane Matthew. The Strikers didn’t arrive in the Triangle until 9 p.m. last night after their flight out of Fort Lauderdale was delayed. They appeared fatigued and out of sync, as both their shot and possession advantage belied an apparent lack of consistency.

“You could see that they were here to sit back and hit us on the counter, which they did a couple of times early on,” Clarke said. “The first goal settled us down, and then we could dictate a little how the game was played.”

The RailHawks (10-7-11, 37 pts.) inch up the NASL overall standings, momentarily moving into a tie with the Tampa Bay Rowdies for fifth position in the table and only one point behind fourth-place Minnesota United. Moreover, Carolina hosts Rayo OKC this Wednesday, October 19 with a chance to climb even closer to a possible postseason berth.

“I think everyone in the locker room is aware and focused,” Shriver said. “These home games are extremely important for us, It’s quick turnaround, but everyone will be ready, and if other guys need to step in and take spots, I feel like we’re confident in pretty much everyone on the team.”

“It’s a battle between five clubs who all feel like they have a chance [at the playoffs] with four games to go,” Clarke said. “We did ourselves a lot of good today, and now that it’s done we have to concentrate on Wednesday night. That becomes very, very important.”

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

CAR: Sylvestre, Miller, Daly, Mensing, Moses, da Luz, Albadawi (Ceballos, 89’), Watson (Beckie, 89’), Shipalane (Marcelin, 75’), Fondy, Shriver

FTL: Cardoso, Dalton, Corrales, Agbossoumonde, Gonzalez (Fernandes, 75’), Santos (Adrianinho, 64’), Angulo (Millien, 46’), Arguez, Sandoval, Paulo Jr., Moura

GOALS

CAR: da Luz, 25’ (Fondy); Shriver 42’ (Albadawi)

FTL: ---

CAUTIONS

CAR: ---

FTL: Moura, 9’; Santos, 42’

EJECTIONS

CAR: ---

FTL: ---

ATTENDANCE: 4,566