Yeah, that was Kevin Kerr sprinting the length of Highmark Stadium late Saturday night, his paper-thin kit and soccer shorts doing little to fend off temps that had tumbled to 26 degrees with whipping winds and relentless rain that eventually, cruelly morphed to snow. Equally cruel, the Riverhounds' 2016 season opener had just faded into a 1-0 flat-liner of a loss to defending USL champion Rochester.
But duty called. And the franchise's new captain, honoring tradition, spanned the pitch to thank the Steel Army supporters section for their singing, chanting, shouting and drumming, not to mention their hardy tolerance for the elements.
"No fun out here," the man was telling me moments later, magnificently rolling the rhotic 'R' true to his native Scottish. "I mean, we did some good things. But you can't have 89 minutes of quality. You've got to have it from the first minute to the 90th."
The Hounds didn't, of course. A quirky goal by Rochester's Christian Volesky in the seventh minute, resulting from the ball skipping over the foot of defender Sergio Campbell and keeper Hunter Gilstrap's subsequent freeze, was plenty enough for the USL's longstanding doppelganger for the NHL's New Jersey Devils. The Rhinos score once, rev up the team bus, park it in front of the net and burn the clock.
To continue reading, log into your account:
