The way Matt Watson sees it, it’s just his turn to stand in the spotlight.

“As long as we’re winning together, everyone gets their little successes,” Watson said Saturday night. “The last two games, I’ve got two goals and it’s nice.”

Watson scored the game-winning goal in the 53rd minute in Edmonton on June 10 for his first of the season, then scored on an absolute thunderbolt in the 36th minute to tie Saturday’s match against Tampa Bay, which the RailHawks went on to win 3-1.

As he’s done during each of his previous three seasons at WakeMed Soccer Park, Watson is again humbly assembling another stellar season. In nine appearances, all starts, he’s logged 748 minutes, two goals and one assist.

More Records for Etienne

In 12 games this season, Etienne Barbara has been held without a goal or assist just once – and even that one time was rather dubious.

Nevertheless, Barbara had another milestone night on Saturday with a goal and two assists in the RailHawks’ 3-1 win over Tampa Bay.

The two assists pushed him into the lead for two more club records. He has seven assists for the season, breaking Kupono Low’s 2008 mark of five, and his 10 career assists have him tied with Matt Watson for the most in club history.

The assist records are two more feathers in Barbara’s flourishing cap. Also in 2011, he has set single-season club records for most consecutive games with a goal (eight), most consecutive games with a point (10), most goals (13), most points (33), and he also set career records for goals (21) and points (52).

Model of Efficiency

In basketball, statisticians have usage rates to measure a player’s efficiency. In hockey, they have plus/minus.

In soccer, we have neither.

Even without a complex formula, we can point out this: Allan Russell has been the picture of efficiency for the RailHawks this season.

The Scotsman has been used mainly as a substitute – he’s come off the bench in six of seven appearances – but he’s scored three goals on just five shots in 119 minutes of play. That means he scoring a goal on about every other attempt, and he’s scoring a goal every 39 minutes.

On the Comeback Trail

Tampa Bay’s Warren Ukah staked the visitors Saturday night to 1-0 lead in the 18th minute. Ukah’s goal marked just the fourth time this season the RailHawks found themselves trailing at any point in a game, and it was the first time since Ft. Lauderdale’s Patrick Otte scored in the eighth minute on May 11.

Like the previous two occasions, the RailHawks didn’t wait too long to equalize. Watson’s wunderstrike eighteen minutes later tied the match at 1-1.

Not only have the RailHawks come back to tie the game after going down a goal all four times this season, they’ve come back to win the last three. Before this season, the RailHawks had two come-from-behind wins in the franchise’s four-year history. 

In total, the RailHawks have trailed for 92 minutes all season. After trailing Puerto Rico for 54 minutes in the season opener on April 9, the RailHawks have trailed for a total of 38 minutes since.

Conversely, the RailHawks have led for 447 minutes of the 1,080 they’ve played over 12 games this season.