Two of the USL Eastern conference’s hottest teams took the pitch Friday night on City Island as they looked to secure their position heading into the midpoint of the season. The Steel brought a younger, faster squad that they hoped could spend the evening troubling the Penn FC defense. But the more experienced Penn FC players were out to prove that they could handle the pressure.
Penn FC was able to seize the initiative out of the gate, but they weren’t able to capitalize on any of their opportunities in the first ten minutes. Bethlehem picked up the advantage from there, and they nearly took the lead in the 13th minute when Chris Nanco used his speed to collect a through ball and get one-on-one with Penn FC goalkeeper Romu Peiser.