A second half blitz from Nashville Soccer Club led to a 4-0 victory over Hartford Athletic on Wednesday night at First Tennessee Park for Nashville’s fourth straight win. Ken Tribbett, Daniel Ríos, Alan Winn and Ropapa Mensah all scored in an 18-minute span in the second half to lead Nashville to its fourth straight win and boost it to 3rd place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Not only was it the fourth straight clean sheet and an extension of the club’s record winning streak, it marked the 100th career head coaching victory for Nashville SC’s Gary Smith.

Unfortunately, the victory didn’t come without a cost as Nashville captain Michael Reed was stretchered off in the early moments of the match with a leg injury.

After a scoreless first half in which the team had to reset following seeing their captain go down, Smith and his coaching staff changed the look of Nashville and it paid immediate dividends.

Tribbett headed home a corner from Taylor Washington, and with it the lid came off of the match. Five minutes later Ríos doubled the lead for his 15th goal of the season. Winn and Mensah then made it three and four with goals in the 64′ and 69′ minutes to give Nashville a comfortable advantage.

Pickens again stood strong in the net, recording his fourth consecutive clean sheet in net.

Here are three takeaways from the 4-0 win.

1) Reed’s Injury Impacts Match

First Tennessee Park sat quiet, a rare sight, as Michael Reed lay on the field getting treatment just three minutes into the match. It was obvious that fans and players alike were rattled by the sight of the captain having to be stretchered off the field. While the comeback win and the four goals all drew cheers, the loudest cheer might have been when Reed was awarded the Man of the Match by unanimous write in vote to the Twitter poll.

2) Rios and Moloto Continue to Produce

Daniel Ríos and Lebo Moloto each tallied in their respective stat categories. Ríos slotted in his 15th goal of the season in the 56’ minute, putting the Mexican forward into a tie for the league lead and three ahead of the next best in the Eastern Conference. Moloto meanwhile added his ninth assist of the season, which puts the South African in second place in the league rankings and extends his Eastern Conference lead by two.

3) Defense Continues to Shine

New centerbacks Jimmy Ockford and Forrest Lasso have still yet to know the feeling of allowing a goal as the club recorded its fourth consecutive clean sheet and set a club record with 376 straight minutes without allowing a goal. Unlike Nashville’s previous win in which it allowed no shots on target, Pickens was forced into two saves and saw a penalty sent wide to complete the shutout. Pickens now holds eight of Nashville’s 10 clean sheets on the season.

Up Next

Nashville will drive for five straight wins with a home match set for a Saturday night against Bethlehem Steel FC at 7 p.m., presented by Piedmont/Tennessee 8-1-1. Tickets are still available for that match.

The Nashville Sounds opened their California road trip with a 12-3 blowout at Fresno. Zack Granite recorded four hits in the game and Patrick Wisdom hit two two-run home runs.

Granite’s first-of-four hits came in the first at bat of the game when he hit a leadoff triple. Andy Ibanez hit him in on a sacrifice fly to give Nashville a 1-0 lead in the first.

Two more runs scored in the third inning for the Sounds. Granite hit his second triple of the game and was knocked in again by Ibanez on a single. He would later score on a Nick Solak single to push Nashville’s lead to 3-0.

Fresno scored their only two runs in the bottom of the third inning. Yadiel Hernandez hit his 23rd homerun of the season to trail the Sounds 3-4.

Nashville would score nine runs over the next four innings, including a four-spot in the fourth inning. Granite had an RBI bunt single that scored Wisdom. Ibanez followed Granite with an RBI double and Ronald Guzman hammered to plate the third and fourth run of the inning.

Wisdom would hit his first two-run home run in the fifth inning. During the next at bat, Grizzlies pitcher Ronald Pena would be ejected for throwing near batter Jett Bandy’s head. His manager Randy Knorr was also ejected in an effort to defend Pena.

Guzman would hit an RBI double in the seventh inning and Wisdom hit a second two-run home run in the eighth to give the Sounds the eventual 12-2 win.

Game two of the series is Thursday at 9:05 p.m., where left-hander Brock Burke will make his Triple-A debut for Nashwille. Right-hander Scott Copeland (4-5, 6.62) will make the start for Fresno.

Post-Game Notes

– With Wednesday’s 12-2 win, the Sounds increase to 48-65 in 2019.

– The 18 hits tied for the most hits the Sounds recorded this season. They last had 18 hits on June 25 at Memphis.

– The nine-run win was the biggest run differential won by the Sounds this season. Their largest wins were seven-run victories versus Oklahoma City on June 30 (13-6) and at New Orleans on June 22 (10-3).

– Patrick Wisdom hit his 21st and 22nd home runs of the season tonight. He has 16 home runs in his last 37 games (since June 18, game 2). That ranks second in the Pacific Coast League in that span (Salt Lake’s Jared Walsh, 18).

– Jake Petricka, Kyle Bird and Shane Carle combined for three shutout innings, allowing just one unearned run and recorded five strikeouts.

The Coffee County Middle School football team kicked off their season on Tuesday night in Watertown.  In a game you heard here on Thunder Radio, a furious 4^th quarter comeback came up short for Coffee Middle.  The Red Raiders fell by a final score of 16 to 14.

Watertown used a pair of Red Raider penalties to march 69 yards in 8 plays to take an early 8 to 0 lead over Coffee County with 7:50 left in the half.  Coffee County answered with their own 8 play drive covering 59 yards capped off by a 12 yard touchdown run by Cole Pippenger.  The 2 point conversion attempt was no good and Watertown led 8 to 6 at the half.

In the 2^nd half, a bad snap resulted in a 20 yard touchdown run for the Purple Tigers after the fumble recovery to make the score 16 to 6 with a little more than 11 minutes left in the game.  After a 2^nd turnover by Coffee Middle, it looked like Watertown had seized control of the game.  But the Raiders capitalized on a bad snap on a punt attempt to start their next drive at the 21 yard line of Watertown.  Pippenger ran for his 2^nd touchdown on an 11 yard scamper to cut the deficit to 16 to 12.  The Raider defense stopped Watertown twice in the 4^th quarter, including a safety by Jacob Barlow, to give them one final possession with 28 seconds remaining.  Watertown’s defense held to escape with the win.

Pippenger finished the game with 110 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns.  Quarterback Jackson Shemwell was 3 of 7 passing for 33 yards and Ethan Hargrove caught 2 of those tosses to finish with 23 yards receiving.

The Red Raiders will return to the gridiron on Monday when they travel to Tullahoma.  That game will kick off at 6:30 PM at Wilkins Stadium at Tullahoma High School.

Download the broadcast at: https://www.thunder1320.com/downloads/

The Coffee County CHS golf team hit the road on Tuesday for an 18 hole dual meet at Cookeville.  Pairing off against the always tough Cavaliers of Cookeville High School, the Red Raiders came up short by a final score of 364 to 335.  The Lady Raiders lost their first match of the year as they fell 226 to 172.

Logan Hale had the low round for the Red Raiders as he carded an 83.  The Lady Raiders were led by Maggie Crouch  who shot a 105.

The Raiders are back on the road on Thursday when they travel to Sewanee to take on Grundy County in a 9 hole match.  That match gets underway at 3 PM.  The Raider linksters will host their first home match on Thursday, August 15^th.