LD Update: NASL & USL Pro Game Night; Plans begin for new women's league

The home teams dominated the night in the NASL as both Florida clubs and San Antonio picked up victories. In USL Pro, however, only Wilmington was able to register a win as Pittsburgh played league leader Orlando City to a draw and Harrisburg won in Rochester.

NORTH AMERICAN SOCCER LEAGUE

Fort Lauderdale Strikers 2:1 Carolina RailHawks - A pair of first half goals from Mark Anderson, including one in stoppage time gave Fort Lauderdale a commanding lead going into the break. His first came five minutes in, and was helped by a deflection. Carolina's anwer would not come until seven minutes remaining, but Nick Zimmerman's tally, a rebound off a cross that struck the crossbar, would not be enough. - MORE

Tampa Bay Rowdies 2:0 Minnesota Stars - It took over a half to break down the defending champion Stars with Mike Ambersley heading in a service from Luke Mulholland in the 55th minute. Tsuyoshi Yoshitake scored his fourth in three games to secure the victory, finishing off a Keith Savage through ball in the 88th minute. - MORE

San Antonio Scorpions 3:0 Atlanta Silverbacks - A header in the 24th minute put San Antonio in front, and Pablo Campos put the match out of reach with two in the second half. He made an excellent individual effort for the first, beating the Silverbacks defense after getting the ball at midfield in the 63rd. He added the second with eight minutes left, heading in a corner kick. - MORE

USL PRO

Pittsburgh Riverhounds 1:1 Orlando City - Arguably the most thrilling moment of the night came in the 58th minute when Mike Seth was fouled in the box by Ian Fuller for a penalty. Miguel Gallardo made a good save on the spot kick, but allowed Rich Costanzo to get to the rebound for a second chance, which he skied over the crossbar. A long throw-in from Seth with eight minutes left found the charging Matt Kassel for the opener. Another great save five minutes later from Gallardo kept the league leaders in the match, allowing the visitors to find the equalizer in stoppage time. Fuller made up for his earlier error, connecting with Matt Luzunaris. - MORE

Rochester Rhinos 1:2 Harrisburg City Islanders - The visitors took the advantage seven minutes into the second half when Jason Pelletier delivered a perfect ball over the defense to a streaking Morgan Langley, who then cut the ball back across the top of the six to Lucky Mkosana for the opener. Mkosana nearly got a second in the 83rd, but his failed effort was put away by Drew Yates. The Rhinos finally answered with JC Banks heading in a chip cross from Danny Earls, but it came too late as the clock was already in the 89th minute. - MORE

Wilmington Hammerheads 4:2 LA Blues - The hosts took a commanding lead just five minutes in with Bryce Taylor beating a defender for the opening goal three minutes in, and finding Corey Hertzog just two minutes later to double the advantage. Bright Dike scored in the 25th in an effort to rally only to see Andriy Budnyy level six minutes later. Bryan Burke cut it to one once again for LA on the hour mark, but the Taylor-to-Hertzog connection struck again in the 73rd to cap the night off. - MORE

Women's Soccer News: Representatives from numerous soccer entities came together Wednesday with US Soccer for a summit regarding the potential for coming together to launch a new top-tier women's soccer league for 2013. Equalizer Soccer's Jeff Kassouf has a report on the meeting.