The Charleston Battery fell 1-2 to El Paso Locomotive FC on Friday at Patriots Point. It was Charleston’s second game of the week after playing 120 minutes against Atlanta United on Tuesday and the team played down a man the whole second half. Jackson Conway scored a late equalizer but a stoppage time goal by El Paso made the difference.
The defeat ended Charleston’s 11-game unbeaten run in league play but the Battery remain atop the Eastern Conference table.
Charleston began the match on the front foot, an admirable start considering the squad went 120 minutes in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup just three days earlier. The Battery made meaningful progress into the final third but were missing the finishing touch on the chances.
Graham Smith nearly scored the game’s opening goal in the 33rd minute with header that just flashed just across the face of goal and went wide.
Charleston’s defense remained rigid and held El Paso to zero shots on target in the whole first half.
The Battery were reduced to 10 men after Chris Allan was shown a pair of yellow cards in a span of three minutes after light contact with Tumi Moshobane as both went for the ball.
Both sides went into the break scoreless. Charleston had more shots (11 to five) and held more possession (55%) in the opening 45 minutes. Seven yellow cards were issued in the first half.
The Battery came out of the break eager to find the opening goal. They recorded five shots in the first 15 minutes but were unable to put one in the back of the net.
El Paso took advantage of the one-man difference in the 69th minute to score the opening goal via Amando Moreno.
A noteworthy milestone was achieved in the 77th minute when midfielder Robbie Crawford entered the game off the bench. The appearance marked Crawford’s 100th match for the Battery and his 100th game in the USL Championship regular season. Crawford first joined the Battery in 2020.
Down 0-1, Ben Pirmann adjusted the lineup with more offensive firepower by bringing on forward Jackson Conway for defender Mark Segbers in the 81st minute.
Conway almost immediately delivered, scoring the equalizer in the 87th minute to make the score 1-1. Aaron Molloy’s corner kick bounced in the box off Graham Smith and Conway spun to shoot the ball off the volley. The goal was Conway’s second of the year for the Battery.
Charleston began to feel more momentum in the final moments of the match and threw numbers forward while getting good looks inside the box. However, this commitment led to El Paso springing a counterattack in the 92nd minute to reclaim the lead through Moreno.
The Battery recorded four shots in the final minutes of stoppage time, including a header by Nick Markanich that hit the woodwork, but were unable to level the score again. El Paso took home the 1-2 victory in the second all-time meeting between the two clubs.
Friday’s defeat marked the end of the Battery’s 11-game unbeaten run to start the USL Championship season, a mark that ranks tied the sixth-longest in league history.
Charleston’s record now stands at 8W-1L-3D (27pts), placing them atop the USL Championship and Eastern Conference standings.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann and forward Jackson Conway discussed the match after the final whistle, with key quotes to follow.
Coach Pirmann on his immediate takeaways from tonight’s match…
I was super proud of the group the whole week. We faced some adversity, two really disappointing outcomes, but two incredible performances. Congrats El Paso, they deserve the win. Great game from them [and] e played a great game. I was very proud of our effort, hitting the post with seconds left. I'm really excited about this team.
Everybody hates to lose and I hate it for the fans. Hate it for the club, hate it for the players. But, they bossed it. They worked their tails off. We just got to pick ourselves up because we have got a tough one on Wednesday with tough travel and a player down
