With both Atlanta and Virginia Beach hosting playoff aspirations, the Silverbacks kept their's alive while dampening the Mariners with a 2-1 victory tonight in front of what had to be their best crowd of the season.
Leading goalscorer Fabian Dawkins put the Backs ahead 1-0 in the 12th, with his 12th goal, when he ran onto a long ball down the middle of the Mariner's defense, danced around Virginia Beach keeper Matt Nelson, and tucked it away.
The score became 2-0 in the 21st when defender David Hayes placed a free kick into the upper left corner of the goal after Virginia Beach defender Joe Morelli was called for pulling Dawkin's shirt on a breakaway.
Virginia Beach made it a game in the 37th. With midfielder Jakob Fenger making a cross on the left wing, former Silverback John-Barry Nusum ran onto it to head it point blank past Back keeper Joe Barton.
The win puts the Silverbacks back into 6th place, the final spot for the playoffs with 30 points, while upping their record to 9-12-3. They now hold a 1 point advantage over the Portland Timbers who they face next Sunday at home at 5:30pm.
Despite the loss, the Mariners are still alive with 21 points, while their record drops to 5-12-6.
Line-ups:
VB-Nelson, Woods, O'Neill, Shak, Morelli(Myers), Hutchinson(Knott), Fenger(Brilliant), Bilyk, Amani-Dove, Nusum, Castellanos
ATL- Barton, Yi(Brooks), Hayes, DeLima(Plute), de la Torre, Lowery(Chevalier), McManus, Murriagui(Pineda-Chacon), Ilarionov(Millwood), Dawkins, Rios
Cautions:
VB-Woods
ATL-McManus, Rios, Lowery, Yi, Murriagui
Ejections-None
