by JAKE NUTTING

After scoring the lone goal in Tampa Bay’s win over FC Cincinnati in the U.S. Open on Wednesday, forward Georgi Hristov helped his side cap off the busy week with a two-goal performance to dismiss Ottawa Fury FC in front of crowd of 6,078 in the final game at Al Lang of the spring.

Coming off the heels of the New York’s loss to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers earlier in the night, Tampa Bay’s victory keeps their faint hopes of capturing the Spring Season title on the final week of the season alive.

“I’ve said it all season, the guys come in day in and day out and the attitude and application from the guys has been superb,” said Rowdies Head Coach Stuart Campbell. “We haven’t quite had a couple calls go our way. If we had them, we’d be right up there. Credit to the guys because they haven’t been disappointed, they’ve been frustrated and they come every day to set things right.”

Hristov’s first tally consisted of a tremendous build up play from Kalif Alhassan and a sublime finish from the Bulgarian in the 20th minute. Alhassan penetrated into the box and laid it off for Hristov, who sped by the Fury FC defenders toward the endline. Keeper Romuald Peiser elected to rush off his line to cut down the angle and Hristov made him pay, delivering a perfect chip over the keeper to the far post.

After failing to scrounge up a single quality look on goal in the match, Ottawa were gifted one by the Rowdies in the 49th minute. On a night where the Rowdies generally did well to take care of the ball, midfielder Eric Avila had an unfortunate turnover in Tampa Bay’s defensive end. Jonny Steele intercepted the ball and fed it to Mauro Eustaquio, who fired a shot from well outside the box that deflected off the leg of Juan Guerra and fell to Carl Haworth. The entire back line somehow let Haworth slip through unmarked and he did not waste his chance to get one by Pickens.

In danger of letting another positive home result slip through their fingers, the Rowdies surged back with a terrific sequence between Joe Cole and Hristov to jump ahead again.

Cole received a ball 40 yards from goal only two minutes after Ottawa leveled the match and took it upon himself to create another scoring opportunity. He accelerated past a couple defenders and sliced by another with a cutback before sliding a perfectly-weighted through ball for Hristov inside the box. This time, Hristov beat Peiser to the near post.

“It was the perfect response,” said Campbell. “We spoke at halftime about going out as if the score was 0-0 because I thought the next goal would be huge. When they scored, I was frustrated because of the manner of it. For a split second, I thought, ‘Oh boy, here we go again at home,’ but thankfully the guys gave a great response and got a goal pretty much straightaway.”

The Rowdies kept pushing even after regaining the lead. They shouted for a penalty when a shot from Cole was blocked by the arm of a defender in the 60th minute. And then in the 74th minute, Cole put a dangerous free kick on frame only to be denied by a diving Peiser. Cole exited the match shortly after that sequence, his first being subbed off since debuting nearly a month ago.

It didn’t matter that the Rowdies couldn’t convert on any of their chances, though, as Ottawa’s legs grew heavier and heavier in the humidity, and they struggled to force Pickens into even one more save.

The only path to a Spring Season championship for the Rowdies next week is finding a way to win by a margin of six against Jacksonville Armada FC. A win would pull them even on 18 points with the Cosmos, but they’d need to overcome New York’s considerable advantage in the goal differential tiebreaker.