New Orleans — The New Orleans Jesters dropped their regular season finale to Asheville City SC Saturday night 2-1, splitting the season series with the Southeast Conference opponent.
The Jesters got on the board first in the 11th minute with the goal from Lucas La Vanway, but Asheville wasted no time responding. Less than 90 seconds later, Asheville’s Luke Matthews tied the game. Then in the 33rd minute, Asheville took the lead with the Elliot Cutts goal, which ended-up being the game winner.
After the game, Jesters Head Coach Kenny Farrell spoke about missed opportunities and looking ahead to the playoffs now.
“It’s a disappointment is all because I think this is one of the weaker performances we’ve put-in this season to be honest with you,” Farrell said. “I don’t know why we under performed. It was difficult to understand but whatever way you look at it, you make a positive out of it. If you had to come in and you played well, you’d be saying ‘great, let’s keep it rolling and fix this and tweak that.’ If you played poorly, you can really examine yourself and say, ‘OK, how do we prepare for this game? What do we need to do to prepare for the next one?’ Is it tiredness? It could be. We’ve been on the road for the last 2 weeks. It might be just getting into their legs right now, which I think is partly what is going on. So maybe it might just be rest. But look, we’ve had a bad one tonight. I still think we should have tied the game at least.”
With the loss, the Jesters lock-in as the three seed in the Southeast Conference playoffs. They will host the 6th-seeded Georgia Revolution Tuesday evening at Pan American Stadium at 7:00 p.m. This will be the third meeting of the season between the two teams, with the Jesters winning the previous two meetings during the regular season.
“We’ll get ready for Tuesday night,” Farrell said. “The only thing that we’re in control of right now is getting ready for Tuesday night’s game here at Pan American.”