Riverhounds give up lead, lose at Tampa Bay

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds have hit a late summer slump of sorts, giving up a pair of second-half goals and falling 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Saturday night.

The Riverhounds (7-8-7) are winless in their last four games (0-2-2) and have slipped into seventh place in the USL Championship Eastern Conference standings.

The Hounds jumped on the 11th-place Rowdies (6-12-3) early Saturday, scoring about two minutes into the game.

Working on the left wing, Guillaume Vacter chipped a pass to spring Robbie Mertz toward the left post. Mertz dropped a pass back to Charles Aho, who buried a shot in the top corner of the net.

The Rowdies rallied with a pair of goals in a 12-minute span of the second half.

Off a corner kick in the 64th minute, Joey Skinner headed a ball on net that tipped off the hand of goalkeeper Eric Dick and hit the crossbar. Lewis Hilton cleaned up the rebound to tie the score.

In the 75th minute, Manuel Arteaga sent a long diagonal pass toward the far post where Woobens Pacius chested it down and fired a shot into the net to make it 2-1.

While the Hounds are 0-2-2 in their last four games, they’re also 4-2-6 in their last 12. They’ll wrap up a three-game road swing when they visit Oakland Roots SC at 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7.