KINGSTON, N.Y. — The saying, "When it rains, it pours" applied in more ways than one on Saturday at Dietz Stadium.
On a day filled with thunderstorms and heavy rain, Kingston Stockade FC rode a downpour of late goals to an impressive 4-2 home win over Seacoast United Mariners.
The first half was a hard-fought, scoreless affair, with both sides trying to assert dominance in the match. Overall, Seacoast proved itself to be a well-organized, hard-pressing team that made life very difficult for Stockade FC in the first stanza.
At halftime, the skies opened up, and the refs had to delay the match by nearly an hour, which saw some, but definitely not all, of the 737 fans in attendance take leave for the day.
But those that stuck around for the full match got quite a show indeed.
Seacoast scored the first goal of the day in the 63rd minute, only for Stockade to answer quickly with a goal in the 65th minute, courtesy of midfielder Marco Kloster.
The Siena product then followed that shortly thereafter in the 71st minute with a wildly impressive low, diving header that put Stockade up 2-1.
Seacoast showed they were up for the fight by scoring again in the 74th minute.
Kloster, however, completed his hat-trick in the 81st minute to put Stockade up 3-2.
Then fellow Brazilian Pedro Espindola scored a lovely, low driven shot against the grain in the 84th minute to seal things up and give Stockade the 4-2 win.
For Kloster, the hat-trick made up his first three goals of the season. Espindola's strike, meanwhile, raised the University of Albany forward's tally to an impressive eight goals on the season.
The victory wound up giving Stockade the top spot in the Atlantic White Conference.
Man of the Match: Marco Kloster
Stockade Starting XI: Giddings; Anasta, Barrett, Gatti, Zobre; Koziol, Macklin, Kloster; Guirma, Espindola, Fortier