Mason Tunbridge scored two first half goals and Tormenta Academy product Sam Jones made his first professional start and kept Greenville to only one goal as South Georgia earned a 2-1 win in the first group stage match of the Jagermeister Cup.

Tormenta came out firing with multiple chances early in the match with shots from Yaniv Bazini, Niall Reid-Stephen and Gabriel Cabral in the first 14 minutes all were kept out of the goal. 

In the 19th minute, Reid-Stephen was taken down in the box as a cross was headed his direction, resulting in a penalty.

Mason Tunbridge, who has five goals in the regular season, stepped up and buried a shot low and to his left to put Tormenta ahead 1-0.

“I love a penalty clearly this season,” Tunbridge said. “It’s always good to have the opportunity to get an easy goal like that.”

Greenville looked poised to answer in the 33rd minute when Jones was called for a penalty following a collision with Chevone Marsh in which the official awarded a penalty kick.

“I think when the referee looks at it, he might have a different opinion about what the outcome of that call should have been,” Jones said. “I’m pretty sure I got there first  and he came through my calf.” 

Regardless, a penalty was awarded. But the Triumphs’ Evan Lee would push his shot wide left, missing the goal and keeping Tormenta ahead 1-0.

“Sometimes you just have to stand tall, stand big for a while and hopefully put them off and I think that I did just enough to get him to send it wide.”

“The biggest thing I’m proud of is after that moment to then have a flawless performance after that kind of interaction on your debut was really well done and I’m ever so proud of him” said Tormenta Manager Ian Cameron. “

Tormenta would double their lead just before halftime as Gabriel Cabral dribbled through the midfield before finding Reid-Stephen open on the left. Reid-Stephen’s shot was deflected wide, but he would gather it and find Tunbridge open at the top of the penalty box. His shot would find the back of the net to extend South Georgia’s lead to 2-0.

“Naill Reid-Stephen’s done amazing and he kept pushing and he found me. Thankfully I was able to put it in the back of the net again,” Tunbridge said. 

“It was a very good first half performance,” said Cameron. “There’s always jeopardy in games because as strong as the first half was, it still could have been 1-1 if the penalty had went in.”

Greenville would finally get on the board late in the match following a turnover near midfield and quick counterattack from the Triumph, but South Georgia would hold on for the victory.

“The disappointing part would be giving up a goal at the end,” Cameron said. “But it’s a night where we win our rivalry, it puts us in a strong position in the cup and we played another academy product and I think if you tick those three boxes for the whole organization, then job well done.”

Saturday’s game was the first in a revamped Jagermeister Cup. The competition, in its second year, added the 24 teams from the USL Championship to join the 14-team USL League One. Teams were divided into six regional groups. Each team will play four games within their group with the winners and two wild card teams advancing to the knockout stage later in the year.

Any game ending in a tie immediately goes to penalty kicks, with each team getting one point and the winner of the penalty shootout earning an extra point in the standings. 

The two wild card teams will be determined by the non-group winners with the highest point total. In the event of a tie, the team with the most goals scored will earn the wildcard spot.

In addition to Greenville, Tormenta will face Charleston, who defeated Tormenta in the US Open Cup, and Tampa Bay, who Tormenta faced in the preseason. FC Naples is the final team in Tormenta’s group.

The win puts Tormenta at the top of the group with three points and two goals scored. FC Naples also won, 1-0, over Chalreston while Tampa Bay and Miami FC tied 3-3, with Miami taking the bonus point in the shootout win. 

“A home game against a USL One opponent, you’ve got to win it and that was there. Now we give ourselves something to really fight for and attack these USL Championship matches which we’ve traditionally done really well on, but then the last two on the road in Charleston, we’ve been beaten and beaten properly,” Cameron said. “There’s going to be some tasty encounters and we’re looking forward to it, I’ll tell you that much.”

Tunbridge echoed Cameron’s sentiments on the importance of Saturday’s win.

“It’s massive,” he said. “I think we showed great grit to hold on through the end. We’ve still got some of the big boys to play in Miami, Tampa and Charleston, but it puts us in good stead for those games.”

Tormenta will have next weekend off before returning to action on Saturday, May 10 when they host Spokane Velocity in regular season action. 

Jones, Tunbridge and Cameron all said it’s important during the week off to train and improve going into the remainder of the season.

“Work. Work like animals,” Cameron said of the plan for this upcoming week. “Come in determined Monday morning, the group that’s not played, give everything they’ve got to get better. Once the whole group joins on Tuesday and we have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday , Friday. That’s four days to come out of those four days clearly better at two or three things.”