Mason Tunbrige scored twice in South Georgia Tormenta’s season opener Friday night but miscues on throw-ins and a corner kick goal by Richmond propelled the Kickers to a 4-2 victory.

“I think we got really, really punished for a couple of mistakes,” Tormenta Manager Ian Cameron said following the match. “In the course of the game, it’s a very difficult thing to say and it’s a difficult thing for people to digest, but there are a lot of actions in the field that I really liked and a lot of the play that I thought was really good, but we made catastrophic mistakes.”

Richmond started off the scoring in the 19th minute when, following a Richmond throw in, Hayden Anderson took a cross from on the right side, fired a shot from 20 yards out that deflected off a Tormenta defender and past South Georgia goalkeeper Austin Pack who couldn’t do anything but watch it hit the net.

Tormenta would respond just five minutes later when he drew a penalty inside the Richmond penalty area. Tunbridge would then step up and calmly score in the lower left corner of the goal, tying the score at one.

“The penalty is always a good one to get. I love the pressure of penalties,” Tunbrige said. “I always feel free to step up and take them.” 

The game would stay tied until the 34th minute when Richmond would quickly restart on a throw-in to Darwin Espinal on the right endline. He would cut the ball back to Chandler O’Dwyer near the penalty spot and finish to give Richmond a 2-1 lead.

The Kickers would double their lead just seven minutes later, this time off a corner kick to the back post where Dakota Barnathan struck it first time and scored to give Richmond a 3-1 lead. 

Tormenta would trim the lead to 3-2 in the first minute of first half stoppage time when Tunbrige took a pass at midfield, dribbled down the center to draw in defenders before finding Niall Reid-Stephen on his right. Reid-Stephen would make a move into the penalty area before finding Tunbridge 16 yards out. His shot would find the net. 

Richmond had a chance early in the second half to add another goal as O’Dwyer looked to chip the ball over Pack and into the net. However, Pack was able to leap and stretch to tip the ball over the crossbar and keep the deficit at one.

Pack would make another difficult save to his right just minutes later to snuff out a Richmond attack, this time dropping low to snag a shot by Emiliano Terzaghi. Pack would send a quick outlet pass as Tormenta  transitioned to offense with Tunbridge getting open 15 yards out but seeing his shot saved by Richmond goalkeeper James Sneddon.

South Georgia would have another excellent opportunity minutes later when Gabriel Alves found himself with space on the left side of the penalty area. His shot also was deflected by Sneddon to keep the Kickers ahead.

Richmond would add their final goal in the 74th minute as Nils Seufert scored to cap off the night. Tormenta was unable to rally late and lost their season opener for the fifth consecutive season.

“Obviously there’s things we have to clean up defensively,” said captain Aaron Walker. “Some actions that were just unacceptable, but we’ll fix it and we’ll go forward and we’ll correct what needs to be corrected.”

“You can’t give up four goals at home, one off a set piece and two from throw-ins. All correctable stuff that we’ll tighten up and be ready for next week,” he said.

Despite the positives from the game, Tunbridge said the team knows they have to play better.

“It’s not good enough and we know that,” he said. “We’ll come back stronger.” 

Walker and Cameron both emphasized the fact Tormenta didn’t allow many opportunities, but they have to do better in defending the chances other teams do create.

“For how many goals they had and how many attacks. That ratio. We’ve got to look at that and work it out because they arrived five or six times and scored four goals off of it. That’s really clinical,” Cameron said. “It looks really bad. But at the same token, I think it’s just a couple of areas that we have to clean up and we certainly got punished tonight on it.”

Tormenta now turns its attention to AV Alta, an expansion team playing their first USL League One game when they come to Statesboro next weekend.

“We’ve got a team coming in who are brand new. They’re going to be full of energy and they’re going to have been able to watch us in a live game without us having watched them,” Cameron said. 

Despite that apparent disadvantage, Cameron and Walker both said the focus this coming week will be on what Tormenta needs to work on.

“We’ve just got to knuckle down and get that defensive fragility away from us,” Cameron said. “I think we’re good when we press, but when we’re in that mid to lower block, that’s when we’re a wee bit vulnerable and that’s what we need to clean up before we go into next week.”

“The biggest thing is we can’t get caught up too much of what they’re doing,” Walker said. “I think we have to fix what we let go wrong here tonight and focus on us. If we can just make these little, little tweaks that are super correctable, I like our chances against anyone.”

Tormenta returns to action on Saturday, March 15 against AV Alta. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Tormenta Stadium.