ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Ryan Felix certainly had one memorable game for the Rochester Rhinos Saturday.
Not only did he score his first professional goal in a 1-0 United Soccer League victory over Ottawa Fury FC Saturday, he also saved the ball off the line at Capelli Sport Stadium.
Felix scored in the 19th minute and goalkeeper Tomas Gomez earned his fifth shutout of the season as the Rhinos extended their unbeaten streak to eight games.
Kenardo Forbes started the scoring sequence with a corner kick as Felix and Wal Fall were open at the back post. Felix got there first and slammed it into the roof of the net.
“He continues to grow this season,” Rhinos head coach Bob Lilley said. “Ryan and Joe [Farrell] have formed a great partnership in the back. Set pieces are really important and it’s great to have one of our backs get on the end of one.”
Ottawa had several opportunities in the second half. The closest it came was a Tucker Hume free kick that was flicked to Ryan Williams, who slid it across Gomez and into the path of an oncoming Fury attacker. Felix, however, came across to deflect the effort onto the crossbar and prevent an empty-net goal.
Lilly was just glad to earn the three points, given the schedule Rochester has had to endure recently.
“We’ve played every Wednesday and Saturday for the last three weeks, which is as difficult of a stretch as we’ll have all year,” he said. “For us to travel down to Florida and back up to New England before playing tonight, I didn’t know how much we would have in the tank. We played an exceptional first half and we showed a lot of guts at the end. Sometimes you have to make a 1-0 stand up and we did just that.”
