Louisville City FC scored eight unanswered goals to beat the Swope Park Rangers 8-3 Saturday night in the final regular-season game at Slugger Field. LouCity fell behind by three goals in the first 34’ minutes before an onslaught of goals started with Napo Matsoso in the 36’.
The Boys in Purple had a USL Championship record seven different goal scorers: Alexis Souahy in the 40’, Antoine Hoppenot in the 42’, Brian Ownby in the 54’, Magnus Rasmussen in the 72’ and 78’, Richard Ballard in the 85’ and George Davis IV in the 88’.
“Fantastic result from our team tonight,” Louisville City coach John Hackworth said. “To come back being down, really knowing that that is not who we are at all… Credit to Swope, I know that they have some excellent players that came out and executed obviously, put us on our heels. The reaction was great by our group.
“We felt like if we could get one back at three-nothing, that probably gave us a solid chance to come back in the second half. The guys just kept going. To go back to the locker room three- three was huge for us. Obviously the second half speaks for itself.”
Louisville City’s eight unanswered goals is its most this season and one of less than a handful of times a team has scored eight goals in USL Championship history.
“I’m proud of the players because that’s what we had to do. Not maybe to score five in the second half, but we had to have an answer. We had to reaffirm that we are the team that we believe we are,” Hackworth said. “We talked about that at halftime; a couple of mistakes that we made in the first half tactically. It’s just not who we are honestly. It was awesome to see us come out and play with such vigor and such tenacity in that second half.
“We really played some good soccer and found the back of the net five times is pretty amazing. I think to end, to come back on a historic night, in stats but also in front of these fans, the last time we are here in the regular season in this building. What a way to end and cap an unbelievable five year run here. Historic in many ways.”
Louisville City’s 8-3 win notched three more points for the club as it jockeys for position in the final week of the regular season. Louisville City finishes the season at Memphis 901 FC next Saturday.
