Knoxville’s Dani Fernandez converted a penalty in the 87th minute to break a deadlock and send Tormenta to a 2-1 defeat Saturday night at Tormenta Stadium.

The penalty was especially frustrating for Tormenta Manager Ian Cameron because he didn’t think it was necessary to challenge Knoxville’s Stavros Zarokostas as he was deep in the penalty area and appeared to be well defended and didn’t pose a threat to score.

“We’re making decisions of making contact on players, it’s stupid. I mean, there’s no other word than stupidity, ‘footballing sense stupidity’ in that moment to give up a penalty where there’s no imminent danger,” Cameron said. So that’s really disappointing.”

“You freeze frame that moment and there’s nobody in the box for them. One player and we’ve got him covered. He’s got the ball at his feet, but he’s in a non-critical area. So we’ve just got to be smarter. When you watch that play back, that’s a hard one to stomach.” 

Instead, Zarokostas drew a foul, setting up Ferndandez’s strike to the right that South Georgia goalkeeper Austin Pack wasn’t able to save.

“We’ve got a staff that will analyze that with the players and we’ve got players who will, hopefully, embrace that analysis and own it, but at some point we’ve got to stop making these mistakes and shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said. 

Tormenta jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. Following a clearance in their own box, Tormenta’s Mason Tunbridge recovered the ball and started to dribble towards midfield. He played a perfect pass splitting the defense to Niall Reid-Stephen on the right running on to the ball. He outraced the defenders and then fired a shot that Knoxville’s Sean Lewis was able to get a hand on, but it wasn’t enough to stop it as Tormenta took the early lead.

“As soon as I saw the pass from Mason, I was like ‘yeah, I’m about to finish,’” Reid-Stephen said of his fifth goal on the season. 

About 15 minutes after that, the game went into a weather delay lasting more than an hour as lighting was in the area. 

Once the weather cleared, Tormenta and Knoxville returned to the field, but Reid-Stephen said the team came out slow.

“I would say we switched off (during the delay) but as professionals we have to stay switched on.”

Makel Rasheed, who signed with Tormenta a month ago to bolster the defensive line, echoed Reid-Stephen’s about the impact of the weather delay.

“Mentally, you turn off a bit. We tried to stay focused while we’re in the locker room, but you’re sitting down for 30 or 40 minutes so of course it’s going to take a toll,” he said. “We came out pretty well but the result just didn’t happen.” 

Cameron said his team started the game well.

“We felt like we started the game properly. I think we deserved our lead and we were playing some good football at that point, but we didn’t have the same impact or the same control of the game post weather delay,” he said.

“No, that’s only 30 minutes into the game, so we’ve got to look at that and address that and work out the reasons why,” he said.”

Tormenta was able to maintain their lead until the 66th minute when Knoxville’s Mark Doyle was able to get behind the Tormenta defense and was on the receiving end of a cross from Mikkell Goling to tie the score.

Knoxville nearly took the lead just two minutes later when they were able to get a header on a cross that hit the bottom of the crossbar before bouncing away and cleared out for a corner.

Tormenta had a chance to score late when Yaniv Bazini’s cross from Sebastian Vivas inside the six-yard box. Vivas was able to control the ball with his chest, but was unable to get a shot off and it was cleared out for a corner kick. 

On that ensuing corner kick, Vivas was able to head the ball but it went just wide of the near post, ending the threat for Tormenta. 

“You’ve got to get points in every single game, especially home games,” Cameron said. “You can stomach not winning the game at times, but you can’t lose on your home field so that is a frustrating night.

“It’s too early for me to say if it’s a step back. It’s a cross to the back post that they beat us to and we switch off. It’s a poor decision in the box. Are those two things a lack of desire, a lack of intent? I don’t think so,” he said.

“I don’t think there were critical mistakes tonight or team dynamics that are really really dangerous. I just think we’re just a group that are not finding a way to be resolute enough defensively.”

The loss drops Tormenta to 3-8-3 (12 points) on the season. They currently sit four points outside of the playoff line. 

Tormenta will be on the road for the remainder of the month. They travel to face Union Omaha on Friday, followed by a trip to take on Forward Madison and then close out the month with the final group stage game of the Jagermeister Cup against Miami FC.

“You don’t get too high with the highs and too low with the lows and you get back to the grind and you work,” Cameron said.