After three matches on the road to start his tenure as interim Manager of Tormenta, Mark McKeever and South Georgia returned home Saturday night needing a win over Forward Madison to remain in the thick of the playoff hunt.

An early penalty save by goalkeeper Austin Pack, two first-half goals from Niall Reid-Stephen and two late second half goals were more than enough to get McKeever his first home win as Tormenta ran away from Madison 4-0 Saturday night at Tormenta Stadium.

The win lifted Tormenta (6-11-5, 23 points) to 11th in the standings, just two points outside of the final playoff spot that is currently held by Texoma FC with 25 points. However, there are seven teams within seven points of the final two playoff positions.

McKeever said it was crucial to get the win at home with how bunched teams are fighting to make the playoffs.

“That’s massive,” he said of the win. “The table is obviously really, really close and we said tonight that we have to make the best of our home games. There’s only five left, now four, so we want to do well and represent well in the home games and obviously they showed up and have done fantastically well. So really, really happy.”

It looked early as though Tormenta may be in for a long night as Madison (4-8-10, 22 points) was able to control the early part of the game and send numerous crosses into the Tormenta box. In the 14th minute, Tormenta’s Conor Doyle was whistled for a handball in the box, giving Madison a penalty kick.

Madison’s Devin Boyce’s shot was low and to Pack’s left, but Pack was able to dive and corral the shot to keep the game scoreless.

“Massive save. Massive moment,” McKeever said of Pack’s penalty save. “We expect that from Austin Pack. For me, he is the best goalkeeper in the league and tonight you see the reason that I feel that.”

“We’ve given up a lot of penalties this year. I was due (to save) one,” Pack said. “I just tried to read it and it was good to keep the guys in it.”

“It felt good to contribute to the win and the guys went and took over from there and got the four goals,” he said. 

It would take about 20 minutes after that for Tormenta to get on the scoreboard, but they struck quickly when they did. 

In the 34th minute, Callum Stretch played a long ball towards the middle of the field. Sebastian Vivas appeared to be the intended target but he was unable to get there. However, a Madison player headed the ball down and directly into the path of Reid-Stephen who was able to get his shot by Madison goalkeeper Bernd Schipmann to put Tormenta ahead 1-0.

Less than three minutes later, Stretch would play another long ball. This one found the head of Vivas who sent it forward. Reid-Stephen would then head the ball past the Madison defenders, dribble around Schipmann and find the back of the net to double Tormenta’s lead.

In total, just 2:47 minutes passed between Reid-Stephen’s goals, his eighth and ninth on the season in all competitions. 

Madison had a few chances in the second half to draw closer, including a shot in the 64th minute that took a deflection and then hit off the crossbar before bounding out for a corner kick.

In the 83rd minute, Tormenta essentially put the game away when Yaniv Bazini found space on the left side and pressed forward deep into Madison territory. As the defense collapsed on him, he found Handwalla Bwana open inside the box as Bwana was able to finish with his left foot to extend the lead to 3-0.

Minutes later, following a short corner kick, Jonathan Nyandjo from the right would beat his defender and send a cross to the far post where Makel Rasheed was waiting for a diving header to cap off the 4-0 win.

The four goals are the most Tormenta has scored this season and the first time they scored four goals since May 18, 2024 when they  knocked off Chattanooga by an identical 4-0 score.

“We’ve got talent so it’s just making sure everybody steps up and does their role to win games,” Nyandjo said following the match.

“We’re trying to make a playoff push so that’s the most important thing. It feels good,” he said of the win.

The shutout was just the second in League One action this year for Tormenta, with the first coming all the way back in March in Tormenta’s second game of the season against AV Alta.

“The clean sheet is never about the center backs. It’s never about the goalkeeper and the center backs. It’s never about the goalkeeper, the center backs, the wing backs and the defensive minded players. It takes 11 players on the field to keep a clean sheet so we have to put value in that.,” McKeever said. “The guys did (that) tonight to cover the ground which is the first ingredient to success.”

“I can’t speak highly enough about them,” he said. 

Tormenta returns to action again Saturday when they host One Knox. Knoxville currently sits in third place and was where McKeever served as coach previously before mutually agreeing to part ways last season.

While obviously pleased with the win, McKeever said there is only so much the team can take from one game to the next.

“We take the confidence, right? But next week is different. It’s a different kettle of fish. It’s a different team. It’s a different night. It’s a different environment, different referees, so you know that each time the whistle blows for a new game, it’s a new game and it’s as simple as that,” he said. “So we’ll take the confidence we have from tonight, obviously, and hopefully it rolls into next week in the belief that we have in each other, but in terms of what goes from tonight into next week? Nothing. We have to recreate it again when the whistle starts.”