Niall Reid-Stephen scored twice and assisted on another for South Georgia to lead Tormenta to a 4-2 victory over the Richmond Kickers and boost the team to a club-record fifth consecutive win.

The win also keeps Tormenta in playoff position as South Georgia now sits in seventh place in the league with the top eight teams advancing to the postseasoh. .

“I thought the performance wasn't great tonight, but the special thing is you don’t play as well as you probably could have and you still get three points and you still score four goals,” said Tormenta Manager Mark McKeever. 

Tormenta named McKeever the permanent head coach earlier this week as he had been serving as interim manager after Ian Cameron resigned earlier this season.

“We think we can outscore anybody,” McKeever said.

Midfielder and captain Conor Doyle said the win was huge for Tormenta as they push to make the playoffs.

“Every win is massive at this point,” Doyle said. “We’re at a point of the season where the last week doesn’t matter unless you get a result the next week. We’ve been able to string a few together, and it’s a big result for us tonight.”

Richmond had the better of play early in the match, including a shot in the fourth minute that Tormenta goalkeeper Austin Pack had to dive to save. The deflection fell to Richmond and Pack was able to save the followup shot to keep the game scoreless.

Tormenta would open the scoring in the 17th minute when Yaniv Bazini slid to gain possession just outside the penalty area on the right. He then got behind the defender and his shot to the far post found the side netting to give Tormenta the early 1-0 lead on his ninth goal of the year.

Just three minutes later, Reid-Stephen would score his ninth goal of the year in league play after taking a pass from Conor Doyle on the left that led him into the penalty area. His strike would also find the net to put Tormenta ahead 2-0.

Reid-Stephen nearly had a second goal of the half in the 35th minute, as he took another pass from Doyle into the box, he attempted to stop and shoot, but his Richmond goalkeeper James Sneddon was able to keep the shot out of the goal.

Richmond would trim the lead to one early in the second half when Nils Seufert’s found space open in the middle of the box and was able to beat the Tormenta defense to make it 2-1 in the 53rd minute. 

Richmond had multiple other opportunities early in the second half as Tormenta could not match the intensity that the Kickers came out of the locker room to start half with, but Pack was able to make several critical saves to keep Tormenta ahead by one.

Tormenta would extend their lead again in the 69th minute when Taylor Gray pressed up the right sideline into Richmond territory. He would then cut inside and find Reid-Stephen who backheeled it back to Gray as he continued his run. Gray’s shot from 18 yards out snuck just inside the post to once again give Tormenta a two goal advantage.

“I played it in to Niall. He did a little back heel, I didn’t even know he was going to do it, but once he did it, I knew I was going to shoot. It was just a nice goal,” Gray said.

Richmond would respond just three minutes later on a Josh Kirkland goal to make things a little tighter, but it wouldn't take long for Tormenta to respond again.

Gabriel Alves found a wide open Mason Tunbridge down the left side. Tunbridge would dribble to the endline before passing the ball across the six yard box. Somehow it got through to Reid-Stephen at the back post who calmly tucked it into the goal for his tenth on the year.

Reid Stephen nearly scored another on a free kick from just outside the penalty area in the 81st minute, but Sneddon was able to dive to his left to keep it out of the net.

South Georgia would see the game out for their first five-game winning streak in club history.

“Wins breed confidence,” Doyle said. “You get the first one and then you get a couple in a row and you start to believe there’s something special going on.”

“You can just see the belief grow within the team. Even if we’re not playing our best, we know we’re going to get a couple goals and if we keep teams to zero or one, we’re going to be pretty successful,” Doyle said. 

“It’s fun,” Gray said of the winning streak. “We’re living life. We’re living in the moment. Man, there’s nothing better. There’s nothing better than today,” he said.

While obviously pleased with both the win tonight and the winning streak, McKeever said there are still areas that the team needs to address as they continue to chase a spot in the playoffs.

“We had some sloppy clearances,” he said. “Our clearances were going 10 yards, 15 yards, and these guys have the quality when they’re clearing the ball to put it 50 and 60 yards.” 

He also said the goals Tormenta allowed were areas the team needed to tighten up and, despite scoring four goals, McKeever said the offensive output can still improve.

“Our defending on both goals probably needed to be a little bit better, but another disappointment is we’ve scored four and I feel as though we could have scored seven or eight. So what a great problem to have, right?” he said.

“We’re going to cause a lot of teams problems. We’re going to continue doing that and we’re a handful going forward,” he said. 

Tormenta’s win, combined with Charlotte’s loss on Friday night, resulted in Tormenta climbing to seventh in the standings.

South Georgia returns to action on Friday as they host Westchester at 7 p.m. at Tormenta Stadium.