Hellenic cruises to victory over Richmond

On a night where the Tampa Bay Hellenic squandered bunches of chances in front of goal, it turned out that the four goals they did net were plenty to defeat the visiting Richmond Kickers Destiny at Ed Radice Park on Friday evening. The midfield duo of Stacy Bishop and Sarah Chapman did well in controlling the flow of play and providing numerous chances at goal for their Hellenic teammates.

The pressure from Hellenic was relentless from the opening whistle as the Richmond players watched Tampa Bay work sharp give and goes to knife towards goal repeatedly. Tampa Bay (6-1-2) got off to a quick start in the sixth minute when forward Jasmine Johnson was able to use a deflection on a perfect cross from teammate Sonia Curvello to slip the ball into the net past off stunned Kickers keeper Allie Albright.

In the seventh minute Bishop fed a sharp pass to Johnson for what should have been her second goal in as many minutes, but Richmond's Albright did well to snuff the shot. Hellenic fans didn't have to wait long for goal number two, however, when in the ninth minute Sarah Chapman put a beautiful pass through to forward Shameka Gordon who put it in the net.

In the eleventh minute Bishop put a nice cross into the penalty area from the right wing and the ensuing shot went just wide. Johnson followed up in the fifteenth minute with a clear breakaway and launched a shot straight into the Richmond keeper's arms from ten yards out. There was anxious moments for Kickers just minutes later in the twentieth minute when no less than four Hellenic players had a crack at goal during a goal-mouth scramble with no success.

Richmond got its first sniff at goal in the twenty-third minute when a long clearance out of the back set up a cross from the left wing, but no Kicker was able to get a shot on goal off the cross. This seemed to wake up the Kickers and the club started playing a much more physical game and were able to exploit the left wing several times.

Halftime came with Hellenic up 2-0 and with a tough three match road trip ahead on his mind, Tampa Bay coach George Fotopoulos took out three starters to start the second half. He replaced Curvelo, Johnson, and keeper Mallory Lofton-Malachi.

Tampa Bay came out strong again and in the forty-ninth minute Jo Dragotta was left of Richmond's goal inside the penalty area and back heeled to Gordon who slotted the ball into the far post. Following the third goal, Richmond kept up their physical play and started to capitalize on some space as Hellenic relaxed with their three goal lead. In the sixty-fifth minute Kickers caught the Tampa Bay defense napping and were able to put a shot off the left post past new keeper Ashley Baker, but was then cleared for a corner. From the resulting corner, Richmond's Sarah Hilt put a blistering shot on goal that Baker did well to push past the post for another corner.

In the seventy-third minute of the game Hellenic right back Jenna Bush was shown the only yellow card of the match for a hard challenge at midfield. Stacy Bishop was replaced by Tatiana Perez in the seventy-seventh minute after a dominant performance in the central midfield. Tampa Bay capped the scoring in the eighty-sixth minute when Chapman floated a nice cross to a leaping Philisha Lewis who headed home Hellenic's fourth goal.

The victory solidified Tampa Bay's second place spot in the W League's Atlantic Division and dropped the Kickers to 1-8-1 and sit in next to last. Hellenic is four points back of first-place Atlanta with three matches left, but Tampa Bay is still looking over its shoulder at third-place Charlotte. Hellenic now finishes the regular season with a brutal road trip next weekend: three matches in three days where they need to get results to stay second place and earn a playoff spot.