Riverhounds punish Hartford after 3-hour weather delay

J.C. Obregon said some of his Pittsburgh Riverhounds teammates played games and others watched Netflix as they tried to relax and wait out a three-hour plus weather delay Saturday night.

For Obregon, it was understandable to have some nervous energy because he was about to play against his former club, Hartford Athletic.

Once the match finally got underway shortly after 10 p.m., he helped make sure the wait was worth it.

Obregon scored on a penalty kick in the first half to help the first-place Hounds top last-place Hartford, 2-0, at Highmark Stadium.

“It was bittersweet to score against my old club, but I’m always happy to get on the scoresheet,” Obregon said. “That’s my mentality going into every game is to get on the scoresheet and help the team win.”

Albert Dikwa also scored for the Hounds (13-4-8). They maintained their four-point advantage in the Eastern Conference over Charleston and six-point cushion on Tampa Bay. Charleston and Tampa Bay both won Saturday.

It was the 100th win with the Riverhounds for coach Bob Lilley.

Severe thunderstorms with an abundance of lightning pushed the 7 p.m. start time back to 10 p.m., and the match finished shortly before midnight.

Lilley credited assistant coach Dan Visser with helping keep the players level during the delay.

“It was a pretty long three hours,” Lilley said. “The only positive I can say about it is I think it’s worse when you play, stop the game and have to restart again. At least (the delay) was at the beginning. … You just try to keep them engaged. You have to relax and can’t be revved up, but you also can’t go into hibernation. There’s work to be done. The hours ticked on, so we got them some food. We tried to keep them up to date on what time we were going to warm up.”

Once play finally got underway, the Hounds quickly asserted themselves and Dikwa cashed in in the 16th minute.

Dani Rovira jumped on a botched clearance attempt by Hartford and quickly passed it to Dikwa for the finish. It was Dikwa’s team-leading 12th goal of the season. Rovira played his 100th match with the Hounds on Saturday.

In the 42nd minute, Obregon drew a foul in the box and then took the penalty to make it 2-0.

Obregon drew a half-dozen fouls against his former club. Hartford (4-15-4) amassed four yellow cards in the first half and six total.

“It’s part of the game,” Obregon said of being fouled multiple times. “I understand that. Just how they fouled me, I scored on them. There’s no love lost, and it comes with it.”

The Hounds finished a four-game homestand by scoring nine out of a possible 12 points. They travel to Orange County on Wednesday to begin the first of three consecutive matches on the road.