RIFC have won the Eastern Conference. How else am I supposed to start this one off? Eastern Conference Champs. It was an incredible night on Saturday as RIFC continued their remarkable run and took down the Charleston Battery at Patriots Point 2-1. The win sets us up for a meeting with Colorado Springs in the final and ends Charleston’s season.

I was once again in attendance for this one, making it my second road trip in as many weekends. And it was a true road trip as I ended up driving down instead of flying. I took that Breeze flight out of PVD to Charleston earlier this year and it was great. It just worked out better for me to drive this time. But on that long drive back, I did some long, hard thinking about the blog decided I’d do things slightly differently this time. So without further ado, let’s take a look at how this all went down.

We started with this set up, which is close to what I had predicted coming in to the game. I thought we would play Noah on one side and a more defensive wingback on the other side. I was just wrong about which side, as my guess was that Noah would start on the right and Duggan on the left. This setup ended up being the better way to go, as it kept Noah near Zach Herivaux and they’ve been linking up well going forward as of late.

Our strategy in this game was evident within the first 10 seconds. We kicked it off with a pass back to Koke, who played a long ball that was contested between Charleston’s Aaron Molloy and Albert Dikwa, who was brought into the lineup with the absence of Jojea Kwizera. Molloy immediately went down grabbing his ankle but was able to walk it off. This moment really set the tone for the rest of the game, as Dikwa was marking Molloy and making it difficult for him to get on the ball.

Charleston had more possession but found it hard to break through our midfield. Both teams created chances but it was RIFC who put on the pressure late in the first half and were rewarded with this:

Clay Holstad has tried that long throw in several times this season, but I don’t recall any of them leading directly to a goal. Ironically, Holstad hasn’t had the room to do a proper run up on those in most stadiums, especially home at Beirne. But he had enough room at Patriots Point to fling that ball into a dangerous area. Frank Nodarse and JJ Williams are usually the ones to get the flick on headers, but this time it was Karifa Yao who nodded it towards goal. Zach Herivaux got the last touch and was awarded the goal that would bring us into halftime up 1-0.

Charleston made some attacking substitutions to start the 2nd half, bringing on Emilio Ycaza to play next to Molloy in the midfield, and 14 goal-scorer MD Myers to play up top. Ycaza and Molloy weren’t on the same page to start the half and it helped lead to this:

Clay Holstad did well there to ride the challenge and carry the ball forward long enough to find Noah out wide. The rest was all Noah. He’s been lethal from that left side over the past few months and that continued here.

Charleston got back into the game less than 10 minutes later through this brilliant free kick:

I thought Juan David Torres was Charleston’s best player on the night. We were focused on taking out Molloy and Markanich (rightfully so), and that allowed Torres some more opportunities on the ball. He was the most dangerous player in the attacking third for Charleston and he showed his quality with that free kick goal.

As for the rest of the game, it remained really physical. There were some hard tackles flying in and some pushing and shoving. Charleston put enough pressure on us to make the end of the game stressful for all of us in the stands and at home, but we were able to hang on.

Eastern Conference Champions. What an unbelievable feeling. Now, on to the road trip:

For Louisville, I rode shotgun with FQB. This time, my partner Sarah and I took the drive down to Charleston. Sarah took the first leg. We left around 5pm on Friday night and started heading down 95. This brought us right through NYC and eventually Baltimore and around DC. We ended up staying in a hotel in Virginia, right near the North Carolina border. We got there at 3am, slept for a few hours, and got out of there by 9am.

I drove the next 5 hours to Charleston and it was the worst part of the entire drive. Not because of traffic or anything, just because we were both exhausted. We stopped to see this guy along the way in Florence, South Carolina:

Interesting experience for sure. Pretty good barbecue for what it was.

Due to taking some time for lunch, we got to the hotel in Mount Pleasant right at 3pm. We took an hour to get settled in and shower before grabbing some ice for the tailgate and heading to the game. As for the tailgate, it was great to see some familiar faces. I preferred the Louisville tailgate to this one though. In Louisville, it felt like were right in the middle of the party with the Lou City fans. In Charleston, it felt like we were just outside their party. The Charleston fans at the tailgate were all very welcoming though, so this isn’t a shot at them in any way.

After the game, we picked up some quick food and headed back to the hotel to crash. It was honestly the best I’ve slept in years. We stopped for coffee in the morning before heading out on our 15 hour drive back to Rhode Island. This time, we avoided 95 and headed northwest through South Carolina, then north through North Carolina, Virginia and tiny parts of West Virginia and Maryland before getting to Pennsylvania. We then shot east and went over the Cuomo bridge before heading up 95 in Connecticut. This drive was awesome. We went through the Blue Ridge Mountains in NC and VA. Great views from the highway. I drove the whole way so I couldn’t get pictures, but it looks like this:

I didn’t arrive home until 2:30am Monday morning. It was a long, long drive. But it was well worth it. Sarah was of course the perfect companion. And being able to go to the game and see our boys in amber and blue win the Eastern Conference was just incredible. It’s been a long journey for the team this year. And it’s been an amazing experience being a part of that going to games at Beirne and heading out on the road for these last two playoff matches.

Up next for us is a trip to Colorado Springs for the USL Championship Final. I will not be making the journey out there but will be living vicariously through those that do. I will be back later this week for the final Prematch Lookout of the year. Until then, UP THE TIDE!