The Charleston Battery fell 1-2 to Rhode Island FC in the Eastern Conference Final of the USL Championship Playoffs in front of a sold-out crowd of over 5,000 at Patriots Point on Saturday. Rhode Island scored shortly before and after halftime and Juan David Torres pulled a goal back for the Battery in the 61st minute, but Charleston’s comeback bid fell short this round, ending their 2024 season as Eastern Conference Finalists.
Charleston started the night on the front foot, eager to take the game to the Rhode Island side they previously drew against twice. The Battery nearly broke open the game off a counterattack in the 5th minute when Chris Allan picked out Jackson Conway with a cross into the box, but Conway was unable to direct the ball cleanly toward goal.
Juan David Torres came within inches of scoring in the 17th minute when his long-range strike went just wide of the top corner.
Goalkeeper Adam Grinwis made a pair of crucial saves after the half-hour mark, once in the 35th minute and again in the 42nd minute.
Rhode Island, however, managed to score first via Karifa Yao in the 43rd minute to take a 0-1 lead just before halftime.
The visitors took the 0-1 lead into the break, despite the Battery having the majority of possession (66.3%) and passes in the opposition’s half (129 to 63).
After the Battery appeared to come out of the break with some momentum, Rhode Island added to their lead in the 53rd minute via Noah Fuson.
Charleston pulled one back in the 61st minute with a sensational free-kick goal by Torres in the 61st minute to cut the score to 1-2. Torres struck the ball from roughly 25 yards out and went bar down to beat goalkeeper Koke Vegas.
On the opposite end, Leland Archer made a crucial block inside the box in the 65th minute, just moments after entering the game from the bench and inheriting the captain’s armband from Aaron Molloy.
The Battery began to press forward more after Torres’ goal, searching for an equalizer with their season on the line. Nick Markanich almost tied the game in the 70th minute but his attempt went wide of the goal.
Grinwis came up big again in stoppage time to deny Rhode Island in the 93rd minute.
The Battery threw all numbers forward in the final minutes of the match to grab an equalizer and force extra-time, but the comeback bid fell short as Charleston were unable to record a shot in stoppage time. Rhode Island held on to win, 1-2, and claim the Eastern Conference title.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann addressed the media after the match, with key quotes to follow.
Coach Pirmann on his immediate takeaways from tonight’s match…
Got to give Rhode Island and Khano and their players credit. Congrats. They’re deserving champions. That should be said, so congrats to them.
We’re disappointed. Processing it all, but we couldn’t really get into a rhythm. I thought the first half was in our favor and they made it tough. They kept following, they kept being directed, they were good at it, they used the emotion of their game to tilt it into their favor.
We didn’t have a couple of things go our way. We had some really good chances in the first 15 minutes. We had some really good play. We just got a little bit away from keeping the ball in the attacking half. When a team is physically aggressive, you just have to trust some things in our process. You have to trust all the participants in the game to make it go right. It just didn’t go our way.
It stinks when you’re that close, especially because I thought we did a lot of things to tilt it into our way and it wasn’t allowed to play out. But, you’ve got to give Rhode Island credit.
Coach Pirmann on the season ending in the Eastern Conference Final…
Super disappointing, but I’m proud of this club. One thing that was stated to me, after last year from a lot of high-level people, was doing things two years in a row is nearly impossible in professional sports. We are that close, so it stinks. Tastes terrible. The boys are disappointed. I’m so proud of them for what they’ve done, I’m so proud of this club. I’m humbled to be a part of it, the crowd, what you have behind you, is second to none.
At the end of the day, it’s football. But, I feel for our community. I feel for our supporters. They’ve put so much passion into it. I really thought we could go and get it done.
Coach Pirmann on the support from the fans and the community this season…
Thank you all, I really appreciate it. This club and community appreciate it. We wouldn’t be here without you all, so that should be known. This is a team activity, this is a community activity, and these guys are appreciative. They’re crying, not necessarily because we lost, but because we feel like we disappointed our supporters. That’s not the case. We’ve made everybody proud. It didn’t go our way, but we’re proud to represent this badge. We’re proud to represent the Black and Yellow. I’m proud of them, I’m humbled to be a part of it. It just stinks, but there’s got to be a loser and unfortunately for tonight, it was us.
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Lineups and Scoring Summary Grayson Holliday
Lineups:
CHS: Grinwis, Segbers, Smith, Dossantos (Archer, 64’), Allan (Saydee, 80’), Molloy, Champman (Ycaza, 46’), Torres, Rodriguez, Markanich, Conway (Myers, 46’)
RI: Vegas, Nodarse, Duggan, Yao, Stoneman, Holstad (Brito, 72’), Herivaux (Twumasi, 90’), Ybarra, Fuson, Dikwa, Williams (Doyle, 82’)
Scoring Summary:
RI – Karifa Yao (Clay Holstad), 43’
RI – Noah Fuson (Clay Holstad), 53’
CHS – Juan David Torres, 61’
