ORLANDO — Dom Dwyer scored three goals, giving him his first professional hat-trick as Orlando City defeated Antigua Barracuda FC 7-2 on Saturday night, in front of 6,580 fans at Fifth Third Bank Field at the Citrus Bowl
“To be honest with you I’m a little bit disappointed,” said Orlando City manager Adrian Heath after the game. “I know that sounds crazy but I thought our second half performance at times was very sloppy.
Orlando City scored early and often in the first half with Dwyer scoring the team’s first goal on a header off a Jamie Watson cross in the opening minute of the game
Anthony Pulis later extended City’s lead to 2-0 in the fourth minute of play when Dennis Chin set him up for his first goal of the season with a nice pass in front of the Antigua goal. Chin then added a goal of his own to extend Orlando City’s lead to 3-0 in the 12th minute after Watson fed him a perfectly placed through ball in the box, followed by another goal from Dwyer in the 16th minute.
“Obviously Dom’s got a history of scoring goals,” said Heath about his leading goal scorer. “He looks as though he’s going to score every time he plays.
Dwyer gave Orlando City a 5-0 lead when he finished off his hat-trick by scoring his league leading eighth goal of the season on a header off a corner kick in the 39th minute. This marked Dwyers first professional hat-trick since getting drafted #16 overall in 2012 by Sporting Kansas City out of USF.
“To get a hat-trick is always a good thing,” said Dwyer about his three goal performance. “But it was a good team performance.
After the first 45 minutes Orlando City went into the locker room with a 5-0 halftime lead while outshooting Antigua 13-2.
“It was a good first half, very sloppy second half,” said Dwyer after the game. “I was a bit disappointed, should have had probably 6 really if I’m being honest.”
Orlando goalkeeper Sean Kelley didn’t make his first save of the game until the 34th minute, when Antigua’s Eugine Kirwan took the teams first shot on goal.
Barracuda FC didn’t help themselves in the second half, scoring an own goal in the 49th minute to give Orlando City a 6-0 lead. Rob Valentino then scored his first goal of the season five minutes later to extend Orlando’s lead to 7-0.
“Some of our passing in the first 25 minutes was excellent,” said Heath. “I keep saying to you about trying to get 90 minutes together and today we’ve probably played 60.”
Hazeley Pyle put Antigua on the board in the 77th minute with his first goal of the season, cutting City’s lead to 7-1.
Antigua then cut their deficit to 7-2 in the 89th minute, thanks to an own goal by Orlando City. Orlando finished the game outshooting Barracuda FC 26-6 for the game.
With the 7-2 win Orlando City’s record improves to 5-1-1 and keeps the team in first place in the USL Pro with 16 points.
City’s next game will be on the road against the Seattle Sounders reserves on Sunday, May 12.
