Illal Osumanu, Riverhounds rally to keep USL streak alive

Illal Osumanu laid to rest questions about whether the Pittsburgh Riverhounds could come from behind without their top attacker.

Osumanu headed home a Burke Fahling free kick in the 91st minute to help the Riverhounds rally from a halftime deficit to beat the San Diego Loyal SC, 2-1, on Saturday at Highmark Stadium. The win extended the Hounds’ unbeaten streak in USL games to nine.

The Riverhounds won despite trailing by a goal at halftime. Rallying from a halftime deficit wasn’t something they had done all season, even with star forward Albert Dikwa on the lineup.

The Hounds (7-2-7), who surged into first place in the Eastern Conference, were 0-1-2 in games they trailed at halftime. They haven’t lost a league match since they fell 2-0 to El Paso Locomotive on April 22.

“You are going to be brave and press and get higher up the pitch,” Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley said. “At halftime, we’re down 1-0. We said we have to play in their half. Put as many balls in the box and stay back and not react to the game.”

The Riverhounds were without Dikwa, who has a team-high nine goals and broke his collarbone during a June 6 U.S. Open Cup match with FC Cincinnati. In the two games that followed, the Riverhounds hadn’t conceded any goals.

Loyal forward Adrien Perez made a play late in the first half to test the Hounds’ resilience. Perez was able to drag the ball across the top of the box before hitting a ball that went around two Riverhounds defenders before bouncing off goalkeeper Luis Zamudio’s hands and into the net.

It was the first goal the Hounds had allowed in USL play in 405 minutes. Zamudio is with the team on loan from D.C. United. Regular keeper Jahmali White is unavailable because he was called up to Jamaica’s national team for the Gold Cup.

“We haven’t been as good as I would have liked,” Lilley said. “It’s more than the third game without Albert. … We had to adjust. I think there’s more that we needed to do in the first half. I think in the second half we lived off our pressure and made more positive runs and put more balls in behind their back four.”

Tola Showunmi gave the Riverhounds the spark they needed in the second half.

Showunmi redirected a Marc Ybarra cross with a back heel that found the back corner and tied the score. An attack that had been mostly listless sprung to life.

San Diego (6-5-5) never threatened to take the lead after the half.

The Hounds pushed forward throughout the second half. A few minutes before Osumanu’s winner, Tony Lopez had a shot from 7 yards that he pushed wide.

The Riverhounds improved to 6-0-1 at home.

“I think we put more energy and stuck after it in the second half,” Lilley said. “It was a good team win. A lot of things had to happen right. When you play San Diego and they are a tough team when you fall behind because they can put goals on you in a hurry.”