Following their win in the second round of the US Open Cup on Wednesday, South Georgia Tormenta FC continued their winning ways with a 2-0 win over Greenville Triumph on a cold and rainy Saturday night.

Jackson Khoury and Pedro Fonseca each had a goal and an assist in the first half to get Tormenta back in the win column and give South Georgia a win in the first Peach States Derby match of the season.

“It was just a good team effort,” Khoury said following the match. “We had a lot of motivation comin in to this week week, especially with the long week and I think everyone just wanted to prove to the fans that we can back up what we did last year so that gave us a lot of motivation.”

“It was important for us to win tonight,” Fonseca said. “We had a big win in the US Open Cup on Wednesday, but we knew we needed this one for the league. This three points were massively important for us.”

Tormenta (2-2-0, 6 points) and Greenville (0-2-0, 0 points) took about 15 minutes to settle in to the match, with each team having a scoring opportunity early. Greenville had a header in the box sail over the goal in the 12th minute while Tormenta’s John Murphy, Jr. had a header also miss the target in the 15th minute.

After 15 minutes, Tormenta found what was working for them and were able to create more chances going forward. In the 24th minute, Khoury and Fonseca were able to pressure Triumph goalkeeper Jared Mazzola into making a bad pass. Tormenta capitalized as the pass came in to Fonseca who back-heeled a pass to Khoury who scored from six yards out to give Tormenta a 1-0 lead.

“I wasn’t expecting to get the ball back right away,” Khoury said. “I figured we’d run at the keeper and see what he does and thankfully it came straight back to us.”

“It’s a good building block for me just to get a bit of confidence for the rest of the games,” he said. 

Tormenta looked to score again in the 34th minute when Davey Mason’s cross found Andrew Akindele 12 yards from goal, but his header went wide and the score remained 1-0.

Five minutes later, Tormenta was able to double their lead. Mukwelle Akale was able to get to the end line and cut the ball back across the box where Khoury was waiting. He then touched to Fonseca who blasted a shot passed Mazzola to give Tormenta a 2-0 lead.

“It was a great team play,” Fonseca said of his goal. “A few combinations of passes which is something that we’ve been working on. I was able to be in a good spot to pick up the second ball that Jackson just layed up to me.”

Manager Ian Cameron saw moments where his team looked really good and were executing as he wants them to, but also saw areas where he knows they can continue to improve.

“I think from the 15 minute mark to about the 50th or 60th minute mark, I thought the team was really dominant, created good chances, scored the goals,” he said. “Where we need to improve is when we’re up we need to be a bit more clinical on the counter attack and we shouldn’t have given up as many crosses. But, you’re talking about a long, hard week, three matches with a small squad and to navigate that with two wins, I’m really proud of the boys.”

In the 79th minute it appeared as though Greenville would have a chance to cut into the lead as Mason was initially called for a handball inside the penalty area that would have given the Triumph a penalty kick. However, after consulting with the assistant referee, they determined the foul occurred just outside the penalty area and a free kick was awarded from there. The shot was blocked by the wall.

A review of the play later showed that the penalty did, in fact, occur inside the penalty area and a penalty kick should have been awarded, but there is no video replay in USL1.

Saturday also marked the return of Kazaiah Sterling to the field. Sterling, who scored 18 goals in 2022, had missed the first three league games and Wednesday’s US Open Cup game while he recovered from an injury. 

Sterling saw about 20 minutes of action Saturday as he works himself back in to game shape.

“He’s been out, now, for four weeks and for most of that he had to be out completely so, physically, it’s not fair to ask him to do much more,” Cameron said. 

He said they’ll continue working on his conditioning and in the next few weeks he hopes Sterling will be ready to start a game. 

“We’ll start racking his minutes up and get him going so he can earn his first goal and see if we can’t earn him the MVP,”

Tormenta hits the road for its next two games where it will face league newcomers Lexington and Knoxville before returning home on April 29 when they will host Richmond.