A failure to execute both offensively and defensively doomed South Georgia Tormenta Friday night as One Knox SC was able to take advantage of the mistakes to come away with a 1-0 win and extend Tormenta’s winless streak to seven games in all competitions. 

Stretching back April 21, a span of 12 games in both League One play and Jagermeister Cup action, Tormenta has only won once in regulation, a 4-0 win over Chattanooga on May 18. In that time frame they have seven losses and four draws including Friday’s loss.

Following a scoreless first half, Knoxville earned a throw-in in the 71st minute. They were able to find Callum Johnson open in the middle of the field. He pressed upfield and then found Kempes Tekiela who was able to shake off a defender and fire a low shot from 20 yards out. 

Tormenta goalkeeper Drew Romig dove to his right and appeared to get a glove on the ball, but it wasn’t enough to redirect the shot as it bounced into the back of the net to put Knoxville ahead.

A visibly frustrated Tormenta Manager Ian Cameron wants to see more from his squad as they try to turn things around.

“It’s just details. It’s a very tight game,” he said. “Throw-ins, we talked about it all the time. All the time. They scored two last week from a throw-in. We’ve shown them. We’ve trained for it. And yet, in that moment,  they still don’t go and mark the guy up.”

After a scoreless first half that saw Tormenta have the majority of possession and shots but were unable to get by a strong Knoxville defense and goalkeeper Sean Lewis. 

“Just hard work and talk,” Cameron said of what Knoxville did to keep Tormenta out of the net. “(Knoxville’s) Jordan Skelton talks the whole game. Hard work, talk, getting the little details right, sticking to the game plan. But our boys, for some reason, get off script but that comes down to me so I’ve got to figure it out.”

Tormenta declined to make any players available for postgame interviews following the match.

Romig, who is expected to see the majority of the time in goal following an injury to goalkeeper Ford Parker, came up with several big saves in the first half, including in the 8th minute when he parried an Angelo Kelly-Rosales shot over the crossbar to keep the game scoreless. He ended the night with five saves. 

Tormenta had a few first half opportunities, including in the 28th minute when Mason Tunbrige’s header from 10 yards out hit off a defender. Calls for a handball by South Georgia were waved off  by the referee.

Eight minutes later, Tunbridge would weave his way through the Knoxville defense and find Sebastian Vivas on a cutback pass. Vivas’ shot was slowed down by Lewis who was able to cover it before Tormenta could follow up the shot. 

On the night Tormenta outshot Knoxville 12-10, but only had two shots on target while Knoxville finished with six shots on frame.

The second half would see a few more opportunities for Tormenta, including a long-range shot from Conor Doyle in the 58th minute that missed just high and wide of the net, and a free kick in the 63rd minute that went directly into the Knoxville wall.

“We have a free kick that we’ve worked on all week to go and execute. Everything’s set up and we don’t go and execute it,” Cameron said. 

“Some of these guys are not executing the little details and that’s what it comes down to,” he continued. “The little details to win these games and our guys, right now, don’t get it. My staff are going to look at it and either we need to change, or we need to bring new people in to find the solution because the organization has invested too much into these boys. We all work too hard to allow these little details to go by so we’ve got to figure it out.” 

Following Knoxville’s goal, they parked the bus, so to speak and while Tormenta was able to get several crosses off and win corner kicks, they weren’t able to break through a Knoxville defense that has only allowed 15 goals in their 15 total matches this season.

The loss drops Tormenta to 3-6-3 (12 points) on the year while Knoxville improves to 5-4-1 (16 points).

The game, played with a heat index of 100 at kickoff, was Tormenta’s only home match in July. They’ll be on the road against Lexington, Charlotte and Central Valley each of the next three Saturdays before returning home on August 3 against Spokane Velocity.