St. Petersburg, Florida – After dropping their last match to Tampa Bay at home two weeks ago by a score of 1-nil, Le Rouge squared off with the Rowdies in St. Petersburg. This time though, goals were aplenty.
JJ Williams started off scorching hot in the first 15 minutes as the Rowdies forward scored two of his three first-half goals in that span, constantly cutting through the Detroit City FC midfield and causing problems for the Le Rouge backline.
Detroit City FC would find some hope at a comeback from being 2-0 down when midfielder Abdoulaye Diop answered 10 minutes later with a laser of an attempt into the top left corner of the net off a free kick to cut Le Rouge’s deficit to one halfway through the first half. This was his second goal this week and only his third ever for Detroit City FC.
Midfielder Charlie Dennis, who scored the winner for the Rowdies at Keyworth Stadium on 4/29, notched the Rowdies’ third goal of the evening in the 37th minute as he crossed up goalkeeper Nate Steinwascher and fired the ball between the posts.
Williams recorded his third and final score of the game before the end of the first half in the 42nd minute. It was the first hat trick performance by a Rowdies player since 2018.
The fifth and final goal of the game for Tampa Bay came in the first 10 minutes of the second half as midfielder Dayonn Harris snuck his shot under Steinwascher’s glove to put DCFC down four goals.
That was all the scoring for the rest of the match as Tampa Bay officially takes three points in a 5-1 win. Detroit City FC has not conceded five goals in a league match since losing to Grand Rapids FC by a score of 5-2 on 6/10/2016 under the leadership of Ben Pirmann.
With the loss, Detroit City remains in 11th place in the Eastern Conference, near the bottom of the table with only five points on the season.
Detroit City FC will return to Keyworth Stadium for their next match, welcoming the defending USL Championship Playoff Champions San Antonio FC on Saturday, May 20. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 PM and tickets are still available at detcityfc.com/tickets.
For more information about Detroit City FC, visit detcityfc.com.com and follow @DetroitCityFC on Twitter and Facebook and @detroitcityfootballclub on Instagram.
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Please send all media inquiries to media@detcityfc.com.
Primary Media Contact: Jarrett Maki
(Sports Information Director, Jarrett.Maki@detcityfc.com)
