CARY, N.C. – The Carolina RailHawks overcame 1-0 deficit,  playing down a man and a driving rain storm that caused a two-hour delay to even Saturday’s season-opening match against Puerto Rico minutes from full time – only to succumb seconds away from the final whistle.

After Etienne Barbara’s 86th-minute PK evened the match at WakeMed Soccer Park 1-1, Puerto Rico’s Jay Needham headed in a corner kick 3:50 into the four-minute stoppage time.

“It’s just a sickening blow at the end,” said RailHawks coach Martin Rennie. “But I couldn’t be any prouder of my guys. As long as we show that kind of hunger and that work rate – we have to be better on our defending  of set plays – but it will come.”

Both Puerto Rico goals came on restarts, which have been a bugaboo for the RailHawks for years.

In the 32nd minute, Puerto Rico scored its first goal on a play that began with a throw-in deep in Carolina’s defensive third. Richard Martinez flung a ball through the area from the right flank. It popped out to Hansen, and he struck it past a diving Brad Knighton at the near post.

On the stoppage time corner kick, Needham found an opening on the back post and nodded the ball in off the crossbar.

“I think we may have had too many people in the front part of the goal and not enough people picking up the back post. They whipped in a really good ball across the six, and it was a tap-in from there,” said Knighton, who made three sensational saves in stoppage time trying to preserve a point for the RailHawks. “That’s something we’ll take a look at on the film and correct because we’re not going to move forward if we keep giving up stuff like that.”

The RailHawks were without captain Brad Rusin, who was sitting out a red card suspension from last season. Forward Kithson Bain was ineligible to play because he’s not yet received is international clearance. And Barbara, last season’s leading scorer, only arrived to the team late Friday night.

Factor in a 1:50 rain delay just 10 minutes after the match began due to a thunder-and-lightening storm, the return of torrential rain throughout the entire second half and Jonny Steele’s 58th-minute red card for a hard tackle, it was a minor miracle the RailHawks kept themselves in it.

But Steele’s send off seemed to galvanize the Orange-and-White. The RailHawks spent the next 20 minutes on the attack, and the equalizer materialized shortly after Barbara’s entrance in the 79th minute.

Floyd Franks struck a 25-yard free kick that was saved by Puerto Rico’s Ray Burse. Barbara gathered the rebound, then drew a foul near the corner of the area.

He immediately scooped up the ball and made it clear he’d be taking the try. Barbara stepped to the spot and drilled the kick into the upper right corner to tie the match 1-1.

“Since I got the foul on me, I wanted to get it,” Barbara said. “It turned out to be a good thing. … . It’s a pity we didn’t at least get a point at home.” 

That point seemed a certainty.

But Puerto Rico went right for the go-ahead goal – and had four added minutes to work with. Shortly after the clock struck 90 minutes, Knighton parried two point-blank headers. A third came his way that he tipped over the bar, giving Puerto Rico what proved to be the game-changing corner kick.

“It’s just one of those nights,” Rennie said. “It’s your home opener, it’s raining, thunder and lightning. You lose a goal with 15 seconds to go after coming back with 10 men, so it’s a bad day. You move on, and that’s it.”

PUERTO RICO 2, CAROLINA 1

Lineups
PR: GK Brad Nurse, D Richard Martinez, D Jay Needham, D Logan Emory, D Scott Jones, A Aaron Pitchkolan, M Osei Telesford (Joe Salem, 89th), M Tyler Wilson (Leonard Ly, 75th), M Josh Hansen, F Nick Addlery, Jonathan Fana
CAR: GK Brad Knighton, D Kupono Low, D Devon McKenney, D Cory Miller (Cory Elenio, 68th), D John Krause, M Floyd Franks, M Matt Watson, M Jonny Steele, F Pablo Campos (Etienne Barbara, 79th), F Brian Farber, F Nick Zimmerman (Stephen Glass, 81^st)

Scoring
PR: Josh Hansen, 32nd
CAR: Etienne Barbara, 86th
PR: Jay Needham (90th+)

Cautions
PR: Scott Jones, 52nd; Nick Addlery, 61st; Logan Emory, 74th
CAR: John Krause, 15th

Ejections
CAR: Jonny Steele, 58th