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USL-1 Charleston Battery

Battery Set For Road test

July 14, 2005 - USL First Division (USL-1)
Charleston Battery News Release


Charleston, SC. The Charleston Battery heads to Virginia this weekend for a pair of matches against USL First Division rivals. Saturday night the Battery takes on the Virginia Beach Mariners in a 7:30 PM game at the Sportsplex. Then Sunday Charleston will battle the league-leading Richmond Kickers at U of R Stadium; kick off is set for 6:00 PM.

This is a big weekend series for the Battery currently in 9th position with a record of 5-9-3, 18 points; only the top six teams make the playoffs. The Mariners are back in 11th position (2-10-5, 11 points) while Richmond is top of the table and the only club to have secured ten wins at this stage of the season (10-5-2, 32 points).

Saturday's game versus the Mariners is the second of four matches scheduled between the two clubs in the 2005 season. Charleston tied 1-1 with Virginia Beach in a game played at Blackbaud Stadium back on April 29th. Rookie forward, Alon Lubezky scored an injury time goal for the Battery to earn Charleston the point.

Virginia Beach made a coaching change earlier this week installing Jay Hoffman at the helm. Hoffman previously coached the WUSA Boston Breakers and is a former Head Coach of the US Women's National Team. Hoffman replaces Shawn McDonald who is the Mariners only previous Head Coach having led Virginia Beach for the past eight seasons.

The Mariners enter the game on the back of a 2-1 Wednesday night loss to the Rochester Raging Rhinos in the third round of the US Open Cup. The Mariners took the lead through former Furman standout John Barry Nusum but could not hold on as the Rhinos fought back with two second-half strikes.

Sunday's game with the Richmond Kickers is the third game of the season between the two rivals. Richmond won the first game 2-0 at Richmond on May 30. The Battery replied with a 2-1 decision over the Kickers in a nationally televised game at Blackbaud Stadium on June 17.

Richmond has led the USL First Division for much of the 2005 season and won its tenth game with a 2-1 road victory over the Atlanta Silverbacks last Saturday night. Veteran striker Kevin Jeffrey scored both Richmond goals.

Richmond is led by sixth year head coach, Leigh Cowlishaw. Cowlishaw has been a part of the Kickers organization since its inception in 1993, helping Richmond to the "double" (USL Championship / US Open Cup) as a player in 1995. Cowlishaw took Richmond to the brink of the USL First Division Championship in 2002 as a coach but saw his team lose in OT to the Milwaukee Wave United in the final.

Battery adds defender Piette

The Charleston Battery has signed defender Jeremie Piette. Piette joins Charleston after spending the first half of the season with the Toronto Lynx. Piette 6-2, 190 lbs., 25 yrs., has previously played for the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Cincinnati Riverhawks, Denmark's Nordjyland, Geylang United of Singapore and Portmore United of Jamaica.

While with Toronto Piette played in every Lynx game and led the team in minutes played with 1087. A native of Midland, Texas Piette was originally drafted in 2002 by Major League Soccer's Dallas Burn; prior to turning pro he attended West Texas A & M University.

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