On a weekend when the Silverbacks had everything falling their way on the USL schedule , the Portland Timbers climbed back over Atlanta in the standings with a 2-1 loss tonight for the 6th and final playoff spot.
Dan Antoniuk scored twice for the Timbers to make their roadtrip to the east a successful one, as Portland rebounded back from a 1-0 loss the night before at Charleston.
Antoniuk scored in the 30th off a corner kick as he deflected the ball in the net from Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar's cross. It was Antoniuk's team leading 6th goal of the year as well as Alcaraz-Cuellar's league leading 9th assist.
In the 52nd, Antoniuk was sandwiched between Antonio de la Torre and Adilson DeLima in the Silverback's penalty area, thus getting a PK rewarded. Antoniuk shook off the foul to put away his second goal of the night as well as his 7th on the year for a 2-0 lead despite Back keeper Joe Barton guessing correctly to his right, but his effort wasn't good enough for the save.
In the second half at the 74th minute, Timber keeper Josh Saunders' clean sheet on the night was taken away as the Backs David Hayes put a screamer of a free kick, just outside the Timber penalty area, in the upper left corner to make it 2-1.
The Timbers now have 32 points on the year while improving to 8-8-8 with 4 games remaining, as the Silverbacks dropped to 9-13-3 with 30 points as they have only 3 games left on the schedule.
Next up is the last home game of the season against the Seattle Sounders next Sunday at 5:30pm. It also will be the Silverbacks last regular season home game at James Hallford Stadium as the Backs will move into their own facility at Silverback park next season.
Line-ups:
POR-Saunders, Goldwaite Thompson, Morrison, Winters, Miranda(Poltl), Lines, Higgins, Alcarez-Cuellar, Antoniuk, Alvarez(Afash)
ATL- Barton, Plute(Peoples), Hayes, DeLima, de la Torre(Stone), Lowery(Pineda-Chacon), McManus, Murriagui(Brooks), Ilarionov(Millwood), Dawkins, Rios
Cautions-
POR-Goldwaite
ATL-DeLima
Ejections:
POR- Antoniuk
ATL- McManus
