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With just two weeks remaining in the Premier Development League’s regular season, South Georgia Tormenta FC isn’t ready to say goodbye to its inaugural season.
    A brand new face in the 67-team league, nobody would have been surprised to see the brand new Statesboro squad run into a steep learning curve. Those struggles may have happened in the form of an 0-3-1 start, but Tormenta has been largely invincible since that first month and rolls into its final homestand of the season at 5-4-1 and with a chance to extend its first season with a trip to the playoffs.
    South Georgia takes on the Tri-Cities Otters tonight at Eagle Field in a 7:30 p.m. kickoff and will look to do just a bit better than its 0-0 draw with the Otters on opening night in mid-May.
    Tormenta comes into tonight’s game off of a loss at Southern West Virginia last weekend, but is confident in its ability to bounce back. South Georgia found plenty of offense during a four-game winning streak and will now look to balance things out after allowing four goals in its last two games.
    “The best teams are solid going both ways,” Tormenta coach Ben Freakley said. “It’s not enough to just focus on one aspect of the game. If we want to succeed as a team, we have to be on the same page whether we’re attacking or defending.”
    Defensively, South Georgia will be just fine with the same sort of effort it showed in its first game against Tri-Cities. After surrendering a few early chances in the season opener, Tormenta clamped down to notch the first of its five shutouts this season.
    New to the Otters’ defense should be a Tormenta attack that has found its spark and is averaging two goals per game in its victories.
    A win over Tri-Cities will be the immediate goal, but is also just the first objective in what Tormenta hopes is a path to the PDL postseason. The top two finishers in the South Atlantic Division are guaranteed slots in the seven-team Eastern Conference playoffs. If the Charlotte Eagles — which currently lead Tormenta’s division —finish with the most points of any Eastern Conference team, the South Atlantic Division will also send its third place team into the playoffs.
    Currently sitting in fifth place, but just four points out of third position, it’s as good a time as any for Tormenta to find a strong finishing kick.
    “We don’t shy away from our goals,” Freakley said. “We want to win games, and that leads to (making the postseason). Our immediate focus is on playing well against Tri-Cities, but I certainly hope our guys know what winning will do for our chances to keep playing.”
    A quick turnaround from tonight’s game will lead into one of the most challenging — and perhaps most pivotal — games of the season for South Georgia. Tormenta upset the Charlotte Eagles (ranked third in the latest PDL poll) 2-0 on the road last month and will get a chance to sweep the season series Saturday night at Eagle Field.
    Tormenta wraps up its regular season slate next week at SC United Bantams and at Peachtree City MOBA.

South Georgia Tormenta FC won a pair of games on the road last week and returned to Eagle Field Thursday night looking to snap an 0-3 start on its home turf.
    Snake-bitten often in its first home matches, Tormenta couldn’t break through again for much of the game, only to strike in the 86th minute for a 1-0 win over Southern West Virginia King’s for the squad’s third consecutive victory.
    Tormenta missed a golden opportunity over an hour into the match when Jad Arslan couldn’t connect on a penalty kick. But South Georgia continued to press the issue and — in the 86th minute — Trenton Whitely launched a cross from the right side that Jeremy Rector found in midair, easily flicking it into the top left corner of the goal for the game’s only strike.
    “We had the momentum and wanted to make sure we finished it off,” Rector said. “We got possession and recycled the ball and I found some space to run into. Trent’s cross was perfect and I pretty much knew it was in when I hit it.”
    “That was a world-class goal,” Tormenta coach Ben Freakley said. “We did everything right. We moved the ball well, got a great cross, and how great was it for Jeremy, a Georgia Southern player, to get that goal?”
    The win not only secured three points for Tormenta in its third straight game — it was also the squad’s third consecutive shutout and its fourth in seven matches.
    King’s Warriors played Tormenta tough in the first half, mixing some solid possessions with a handful of dangerous counterattacks. Alex Guerra stood in goal for Tormenta in his first start of the season and was up to the task, stopping a pair of point-blank scoring opportunities in the first half of action.
    As the game wore on, Tormenta’s defense tightened and Southern West Virginia’s offensive threats became few and far between.
    “We weren’t pressing high enough early on,” Freakley said. “We were content to let them possess the ball in their half and bring it up the field. I saw us do a better job of pressuring them (in the second half) and that led to more opportunities for us.”
    Tormenta has had no trouble in getting fans out to Eagle Field and Thursday was no exception as another solid turnout finally got to celebrate a victory.  The celebration actually started a few minutes early as Tormenta reserve players — not in uniform and sitting amongst fans behind King’s Warriors’ net — flooded onto the field to celebrate with Rector and company after the decisive strike.
    In just a week, Tormenta has gone from an expansion team wallowing in the cellar of the South Atlantic Division right into the middle of the standings. Even more daunting for future opponents, Tormenta has played the fewest games of anyone in the division, allowing for them to accumulate more points as other teams stay on the sidelines during bye dates.
    Add in the opportunistic offense and a defense that hasn’t conceded a goal in over 280 minutes of action and the Premier Development League’s newest franchises is starting to look like a big threat.
    With all of the momuntum now squarely in its corner, Tormenta will try to bounce back on short rest. On Saturday night, South Georgia will welcom the West Virginia Chaos for a 7:30 kickoff. Following that game, Tormenta will return the long road trip, travelling to West Virginia for rematches against both sides.

ong before South Georgia Tormenta FC ever played its first match, the newly-formed Premier Development League franchise was out and about in Statesboro, promoting itself and doing everything possible to recruit a fan base.

Many PDL teams operate on thin budgets and try to keep things simple, but that has never been Tormenta’s line of thought. From the first events – before any players or coaches had been signed on – team owner and president Darin Van Tassell repeatedly said that his franchise would “act like an undefeated team because, so far, we are.”

Despite the optimistic outlook, Tormenta couldn’t avoid the growing pains that come all too often with a brand new club. A draw in their first match gave way to three home losses and last week saw Tormenta facing a two-city, three-day road trip to face the top two teams in the division.

Somewhere on the road to North Carolina, Tormenta found a spark. South Georgia upset the division leading Charlotte Eagles in their first match before paying back the Carolina Dynamo for an earlier loss last Saturday.

Now back at home, Tormenta heads into a two-game home stretch – facing Southern West Virginia King’s tonight before taking on the West Virginia Chaos Saturday evening at Eagle Field – with plenty of momentum.

“These guys are confident,” Tormenta coach Ben Freakley said. “We fed off of each other. We trained well going into that trip and felt like we would win. Everyone played with great cohesion and we didn’t stop once we got a lead.”

The key to Tormenta’s sudden turnaround could be as simple as finally scoring some goals. The offense looked increasingly better with each passing game, but untimely whistles and some bad luck saw South Georgia fail to find the net in each of its first four matches.

In the Charlotte game, midfielder Sam Lofts lifted a cross into the middle that was deflected past the keeper for an own goal. Later in the game, Lofts found the net without any assistance from the defense. With the offense finally firing, Tormenta surprised the Dynamo with a much better showing than in their first meeting.

“We’ve been up to play, but just weren’t getting a break” Lofts said. “Once the first goal went in, there was a little less pressure on us.”

The goals are nice – and necessary – but the Tormenta defense deserves just as much credit. Two shutouts in a row is good for any squad, especially when playing away from home. South Georgia has also kept its opponents off the scoreboard in the first half in each of its last four contests, giving its offense every opportunity to strike first and put the pressure on the other side.

“It’s impressive to play 180 minutes and give up zero goals,” Freakley said. “In half of our games, we haven’t allowed a goal. That’s not something to get arrogant about, but it’s something to take pride in and continue to strive for.”

“We’ve defended well all season,” midfielder Jordan Lue said. “Even in the losses, we weren’t giving up goals were we were really getting beaten. The play has been there and it’s finally starting to show up on the scoreboard.”

The next step, of course, is to keep the good times rolling.

Tormenta’s two wins have vaulted them from the division cellar to a comfortable spot in the middle of the standings. The players have experienced the joy of winning, but now want to showcase their success in front of a home crowd that has been supportive all season.

“I always see our fans out tailgating before games,” Lue said. “You hear them before, during and after the game. It’s something I haven’t experienced before and we definitely want to win for them.”