— At its height, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation was the second-largest steel producer in the United States and its biggest shipbuilder. During the company’s early 20th century expansion, local steelworkers in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania formed a recreational soccer team. By 1913, with the substantial assistance of corporation owner Charles M. Schwab, Bethlehem Steel FC had built the country’s first soccer field with stadium seating and begun an extraordinary run of on-field success that ultimately comprised nine league championships, six American Cup titles, and five wins in the National Challenge Cup, the forerunner to the U.S. Open Cup.

Interleague soccer dissension and the Great Depression brought the end of Bethlehem Steel FC in 1930. Bethlehem Steel itself continued to flourish for decades, until the corporation dissolved in 2013.

In 2015, the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer adopted the Bethlehem Steel FC moniker for its new reserve side in the lower-division USL. Saturday evening at WakeMed Soccer Park, the Steel namesake rekindled a measure of old glory against North Carolina FC, erasing a one-goal lead by clipping two late goals to stun NCFC, 2-1.

“We did a lot of very, very good things, particularly in the first half,” said NCFC manager Colin Clarke. “We didn’t do a good enough job, from me all the way down through the staff and players, of getting ourselves organized for the last 15 minutes of a game, to shut up shop and take the three points at 1-nil.”

“North Carolina was significantly better than us in the first half,” echoed Bethlehem Steel manager Brendan Burke. “So, we tried to light a fire at halftime and just say, we can’t allow them to establish a rhythm in the second half. I think we did a good job of that.”

North Carolina FC grabbed an early and seemingly lasting lead in the 16th minute, when a seeing-eye corner kick by Kyle Bekker found defender Peabo Doue far post. Doue poked in the bounder to give the home side a 1-0 edge that held through halftime.

At intermission, Burke challenged his Steel boys to reverse market trends.

“We got after each other a little bit at halftime,” Burke said. “Everybody, players and players, coaches and players, and I think it was needed.”

“At halftime, the coach really got into us and told us we needed to step up and pressure,” reiterated defender Ben Ofeimu, “so that’s what we did and got the result.”

After holding Bethlehem Steel’s offensive influx at bay beyond the 80th minute, the result rapidly fell apart for North Carolina FC. In the 83rd minute, former Pfeiffer University standout Santi Moar crossed to the 17-year-old Ofeimu, whose short-range blast appeared to clip NCFC’s Marios Lomis on its route into the goal.

“They crossed it, I was open, took a touch and whacked it as hard as I could at the goal, and it went in,” Ofeimu said.

Two minutes later, Moar delivered another cross off the right wing that found the onrushing 18-year-old Michee Ngalina far post. Ngalina calmly finished past NCFC goalkeeper Alex Tambakis to give the visitors a shock 2-1 victory.

The Bethlehem bench erupted, a demonstrable exhilaration not lost on Burke.

“I’m just proud of the fight,” Burke said. “Our goal scorers tonight were 17 and 18 years old, respectively. One [Ofeimu] was an academy player playing his very first pro game, and he stood up tall as a center back, which is hard to do against a two-forward system.”

“It was my debut, so that made it meaningful, obviously,” Ofeimu said. “But in the first half, we played like we were flat, so just our response was the biggest thing.”

Clarke was left fuming over his team’s inability to see out the result after controlling the run of play.

“We weren’t disciplined enough and not in good enough shape,” Clarke said. “It was too much of a track meet from end-to-end when it didn’t need to be. We were 1-nil up, and we were looking like we were playing 1-nil behind.”

“Some of that came from fatigue,” Burke suggested. “I think we were better, and deserve some credit, for the ball speed in the second half. I thought we knocked the ball around a lot better in the second half, and not at all in the first half, to be honest.”

North Carolina FC (3-2-5, 11 pts.) remains mired in the bottom-half of the USL Eastern Conference table. The fixtures now come thick, fast, and no easier as NCFC heads north to play DC United this Tuesday, June 5 in the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. North Carolina returns to Cary next Saturday, June 9 to host former NCFC captain Nazmi Albadawi and his conference-leading FC Cincinnati.

“It’s going to be tough,” Clarke said. “[DC United] doesn’t play this weekend, so they can pick and choose who they play. It’s going to be a tough night, and we have to pick ourselves up, get on the road to recovery, and go up there and put in a performance and hopefully get a result.”

BOX SCORES

LINEUPS

NC: Tambakis, Taylor, Tobin, Harrington, Doue, Bekker, G. Smith, Kandziora (Shipalane, 87’), da Luz, Ewolo (Lomis, 68’), Rios (Fortune, 80’)

BST: McGuire, Real, Aubrey, Ofeimu, Mahoney, Chambers, Najem, Moar, Herbers (Skundrich, 61’), Ngalina (Catalano, 90+1’), Apodaca (Nanco, 45’)

GOALS

NC: Doue, 16’ (Bekker)

BST: Ojeimu, 83’ (Moar); Ngalina, 85’ (Moar)

CAUTIONS

NC: Tobin, 57’; Harrington, 67’; da Luz, 89’

BST: Najem, 25’

EJECTIONS

NC: ---

BST: ---

ATTENDANCE: 3,526