Soca Warriors striker, Devorn Jorsling scored the decisive penalty-kick as the ten-man Orlando City Lions defeated Harrisburg City Islanders 3-2 on penalty-kicks after a 2-2 draw in the USL Pro Championship match at the Florida Citrus Bowl on Saturday night.Jorsling had to share the spotlight though with teammate, second-choice goalkeeper Sean Kelly, who came on after starting goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo was sent off just after the half-time break and turned in a "Most Valuable Player" performance after he saved the Islanders' first two penalties in the shoot-out from Nelson Becerra and Jose Angulo.
The Lions held a 2-0 advantage after Lewis Neal and Yordany Alvarez both scored.But Harrisburg got back on even terms as JT Noone and Stephen Basso both scored and Orlando's Charlie Campbell and Luke Boden both skied their shots, which left the teams tied 2-2 entering the final round of shots. Harrisburg's Sainey Touray missed his shot wide left to open the fifth round while Jorsling, the top scorer in the Digicel T&T Pro League last year before his move to Orlando, fired his attempt into the left corner of the net to send the majority of the crowd of 11,220 into massive celebrations. Both teams had chances in the first-half of the entertaining encounter, with the best falling to Harrisburg's Brian Schofield, who shot over the crossbar from 15 yards after beating Orlando's offside trap.
Four minutes after the break Touray was played in down the left channel and was brought down outside the penalty area by Gallardo, who was shown a red card for preventing a goal-scoring opportunity. That gave the City Islanders the upper hand, and they tried to take advantage with Touray proving a constant menace, knifing past his marker in the 62nd minute only for Kelley to smother his shot as he closed down on the attacker. But while they were down to ten men, Orlando which also featured T&T's Kevin Molino in its squad continued to push men forward at every opportunity, taking the game to the City Islanders as the half wore on. The Lions' pressure paid off in the 89th minute, though, when Lawrence Olum appeared to have given his side a dramatic victory after arriving late at the top of the penalty area to meet a pass from Lewis Neal which he rifled home from 15-yards into the right side of the net past goalkeeper Chase Harrison.
Harrisburg then threw everything forward in stoppage time, and off a third consecutive corner the City Islanders found their reward. Kelley came for the cross, but couldn't gather, and Noone was on hand to poke the ball home from six yards out with what proved to be the final kick of regulation. Harrisburg then took a 2-1 lead five minutes into overtime when Touray headed home a near-post corner from Jason Pelletier while in the 110th minute, Morgan Langley almost added a third as his header came back off the post before it was scrambled to safety by Orlando's defence. Five minutes later, the Lions gave themselves a chance at their first title after a good ball into the penalty area found Dennis Chin, and he was brought down by Bloes, which earning the defender a red card and Orlando a penalty kick, converted by Neal.
Either side could have won the game at the death but in the end Kelly and Jorsling, who came on in the extra-time period combined to land the title for the Lions to cap off a remarkable campaign in which they won both the regular season title and the league championship. The Lions also dominated the USL PRO awards as they captured the most valuable player (Yordany Alvarez), coach of the year (Adrian Heath), defender of the year (Rob Valentino) and goalkeeper of the year (Miguel Gallardo) accolades.
