Dane Kelly is the all-time leading scorer in USL Championship history, and Kenardo Forbes is the all-time assist leader, but the two switched roles Saturday night.

It was Kelly who dropped a pass to Forbes from well outside the 18-yard box, and he launched a rocket shot under the crossbar in the 51st minute.

It proved to be the winning goal in a 2-1 win for the Riverhounds over Hartford Athletic in the home opener at Highmark Stadium.

“I was mad at myself for hitting one over the (crossbar) in the first half, so I just hit that one as hard as I could and kept it under the bar,” said Forbes, the Riverhounds’ captain and longest-tenured player.

It’s the second time in the club’s 23-year history that they have started the season 2-0.

Kelly, who scored his 100th USL goal in his Riverhounds’s debut last week in a 3-0 victory at Memphis, added his second assist of the season on Forbes’ goal.

“It’s a good connection,” Forbes said. “We know how to play off each other even though it’s our first time playing together. I think Kelly, Russ (Cicerone), (Albert) Dikwa and myself have a good understanding up top. We know to rotate defensively. (Kelly) is getting up to speed. We still have a lot of work to do as a team.”

The Riverhounds played an opponent down a man because of a red card for the second consecutive week. Peter Lee-Vassell received his second yellow card in the 41st minute and was sent off. It was similar time when Memphis lost a player because of a pair of yellows last week.

With the advantage, the Riverhounds controlled possession for the majority of the second half. Harftord had a free kick from the left side of the box in stoppage time, which led to a late scoring chance, but Jelani Peters cleared the ball out of danger.

“I thought it was a little bit better performance than Memphis,” Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley said. “Last week against Memphis we really weren’t able to keep the ball with the extra man. We still have a lot of work to do though. In the attacking area we tried to force some balls where the ball needs to keep circulating until we can organically produce a good ball to create a chance. I don’t think our defending has been good enough. I recognize we haven’t give up a lot of chances, but we’re too easy to play against. We’ve been able to get away with it against teams doing extra work down to 10 men, but that’s not going to happen every week.”

Robby Dambrot got the Riverhounds on the board in his home debut in the 11th minute. Danny Griffin fed a cross in that hit off a Hartford defender and settled at Dambrot’s feet, and he slipped a shot in on the far post.

It was a nice moment for Dambrot, a former Pitt standout and the son of Duquesne men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot.

“On the play before, Bob (Lilley) was yelling for me to get into the box, so I got in the box and the ball bounced its way to me and I put it in the far corner,” Dambrot said. “I guess that’s why (Lilley) gets paid the big bucks.”

Juan Carlos Obregon, Jr. finished a cross from Prince Saydee in the 40th minute for Harftord’s lone goal.

There were six yellow cards issued, three on each team.

The Riverhounds travel to new USL side Detroit City FC next Saturday. They will be without defenders Jesse Williams and Mekeil Williams, who are being called up to the Trinidad and Tobago national team for international friendlies.

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