Sporting Jax men's soccer earns first league win. Here's how

One goal went in off a shoulder. The other found the net off an opponent.

Lucky, maybe. But for Liam Fox, these goals were priceless.

"We got an element of luck with the goals, there's no getting away from that," the Sporting Club Jacksonville head coach said. "But I honestly believe if you keep working, the harder you work, the luckier you get."

Fox and his Sporting Jax team are winners at last, earning their first-ever victory in USL Championship men's soccer and knocking off the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 2-1 on July 15 at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium.

A half-season of frustration flipped the other way on both second-half scores, a bizarre pinball-style double ricochet off Kieran Sadlier and a deciding own goal off Pittsburgh defender Joao Victor Souza, combining to bring Sporting Jax (1-11-4) its milestone victory.

It took 16 games, but Jacksonville's win column is no longer empty.

"It's been a long time coming," Fox said.

DEFLECTIONS TURN GAME AROUND

After more than four months foiled by mistakes and bad breaks, Sporting Jax saw the ball bounce their way for a change.

Exhibit A came in the 50th minute. Sporting Jax right wingback Edgardo Rito zipped in a low cross and Sadlier fired a shot from the top of the box, a wildly-bounding ball that whacked off one Riverhounds defender, then another, and finally thumped against the upper body of Sadlier himself before fluttering into the net.

The goal was Sadlier's eighth of the season, lifting him into a tie for sixth in the league scoring list.

Exhibit B followed in the 79th minute, when Rito cut inside from the right and aimed a pass across the box. Substitute forward Ahmad Al-Qaq received it and drilled a low cross back to the right, where Riverhounds defender Souza lunged to block but instead redirected the ball into his own net.

Suddenly, a once-losing game — Pittsburgh (6-6-2) had seized a 29th-minute lead when Trevor Amann punished a mistimed offside trap, putting away Eliot Goldthorp's assist — turned into a breakthrough.

The league's last-place defense also showed much-needed improvement. Sporting Jax limited Pittsburgh to one shot on target in a winning debut for former Scotland national team center back Danny Wilson, whose previous clubs include Liverpool and Glasgow Rangers. Wilson worked all 90 minutes alongside team captain Ryan Edwards.

For the first time in the team's short history, there's a different sense of momentum. Winning momentum. Less-than-conventional goals, after all, count just the same.

"At this moment in time," Fox said, "I don't really care how they came."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Sporting Jax men's soccer earns first league win. Here's how