The Carolina RailHawks travel team in Minnesota for tonight’s initial leg of a home-and-away series against the NSC Minnesota Stars was revealed to Triangle Offense this morning by team officials. They are:
Eric Reed – GK
Sean O’Connor – GK
Devon McKenney – D
Daniel Woolard – D
Brad Rusin – D
Kupono Low – D
Matt Bobo – D
Cory Elenio – M
Daniel Paladini – M
Floyd Franks – M
Amir Lowery – M
Marques Davidson – M
Matt Watson – M
Josh Gardner – M
Gregory Richardson – F
Etienne Barbara – F
Allan Russell – F
Tom Heinemann – F
No surprises here, as this roster comports with the RailHawks’ lineups during their winning streak over the past several weeks. The only notable absence is team defensive player of the year Greg Shields, who is obviously still nursing an injury suffered during the Sept. 15 game at Minnesota that has kept him out of action ever since.
Also missing from the list is injured goalkeeper Nic Platter (who is a former Minnesota player, by the way) and erstwhile mainstays John Gilkerson and Andriy Budnyy, who have not figured in the RailHawks’ rotation lately.
During last year’s playoffs, manager Martin Rennie (in)famously left leading scorer Richardson and defensive stopper Lowery off the team that traveled to the first leg at Vancouver, for still-nebulous reasons. The RailHawks failed to score in Vancouver, and the Whitecaps successfully protected their 1-0 margin by playing stall ball during the return match in Cary.
