Riverhounds' winless streak continues with home loss to Tampa Bay

Leo Fernandes scored a pair of goals, one in each half, as the Tampa Bay Rowdies defeated the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, 5-2, Saturday night at Highmark Stadium.

The loss left the Riverhounds (7-6-3) winless in their last six games (0-4-2). They’re in sixth place in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference. Tampa Bay (8-6-3) is in third place.

It was the first home loss of the season for the Riverhounds (5-1-1).

The Riverhounds jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute when Arturo Ordonez, a first-year defender out of Pitt, scored his first professional goal. Ordonez took a pass from Alex Dixon on the right side of the box and buried a shot into the top-left corner of the net. It was the 30th career assist for Dixon.

It was pretty much all Tampa Bay after that.

In the 15th minute, Sebastian Dalgaard headed a long free kick ahead to Kyle Greig, who slipped in behind the Riverhounds defense and tied the score 1-1.

In the 20th minute, Fernandes and Riverhounds goalkeeper Kevin Silva arrived at a Yann Ekra centering pass at about the same time, and Fernandes scored to give Tampa Bay the lead for good.

In the 41st minute, Dalgaard found Jake LaCava at the penalty spot with a centering pass, and his finish made it 3-1.

Fernandes scored on a nighty individual effort in the 57th minute and Lucky Mkosana took advantage of a turnover to score in the 64th minute to make it 5-1. Russell Cicerone cleaned up a rebound in the box in the 75th minute for the Riverhounds to account for the final margin.

The Riverhounds will look to snap their first three-game losing streak since 2017 when they visit New York Red Bulls II at 7 p.m. Friday.