NYRB II rout Charleston Battery, 4-0, in opening round of USL Eastern Conference playoffs

New York Red Bulls II kept their title defense aspirations alive with a 4-0 rout of Charleston Battery on Saturday.

Manager John Wolyniec made three changes to the team that were defeated by Rochester Rhinos. Evan Louro started in place of Rafael Diaz. There was one change to the back four as Ethan Kutler replaced Andrew Lombard. Hassan Ndam, Jordan Scarlett and David Najem remained in the team. The usual pairing of Dan Metzger and Andrew Tinari continued in the midfield. The front four had one change as well as Arun Basuljevic replaced Vincent Bezecourt with the latter’s call up to the first team. Stefano Bonomo, Junior Flemmings and Florian Valot started alongside each other once again as well.

Both teams started out well, but NYRB II had the first chance of the game when Flemmings curled a shot just wide from outside the box.

Charleston had a good chance to take the lead as Ataulla Guerra was played in and tried to chip Louro but it went wide.

Both teams continued to look for opportunities and NYRB II nearly had the opener when Valot got a head to Kutler’s cross but it went just wide.

NYRB II finally found the breakthrough six minutes before half when Flemmings found some space on the wing and sent in a perfect cross to Bonomo whose diving header found the back of the net.

Despite the lead Wolyniec said that they had to put in more work in the 2nd half in order to get a win.

It took only six minutes into the 2nd half for NYRB II to find a second and it came via a set piece. Basuljevic sent in a low cross from a corner which Metzger let run to Kutler and his shot from 25 yards out found the top corner to give NYRB II a 2-0 lead.

NYRB II continued to push for another goal and Valot shot right at Charleston keeper Odisnel Cooper.

Charleston had two good chances to grab a goal back as Scarlett nearly put it into his own net with a deflection but Louro made a good stop. Romario Williams was able to get one on one with Louro a few minutes later but he shot over the bar.

Valot would add NYRB II’s third goal two minutes later. Bonomo intercepted a pass and forced a good save from Cooper, but Valot was able to tuck the rebound home for his 8th goal in his last 9 games.

NYRB II added another when substitute Ben Mines scored just 30 seconds after coming on Basuljevic. A good pass from Valot found Tinari who slid the ball across to Mines and the 17 year old academy product placed it into the corner of the net for a 4-0 lead.

NYRB II were able to see out the rest of the game and came away with their best road performance of the season.

NYRB II will travel again next week when they play Tampa Bay Rowdies in the USL Eastern Conference semi finals. The game will take place on Friday, October 27, at 7:30 pm.