Baltimore's Crystal Palace upends defending champs, prepares for first-place Eagles

Losers of three of its past four games, Palace rallied from an early deficit, had two players ejected, but still managed to score in stoppage time to upset defending United Soccer League Second Division champion Harrisburg, Pa., 2-1, on Thursday night.

"It's the worst possible outcome," Harrisburg midfielder David Schofield told reporters. "You can't be two players up and still lose a game, it just can't happen. I'm kind of at a loss for words.”

The City Islanders (5-2-9) opened the scoring on a penalty kick just six minutes into the game. But Palace (9-5-1) got the equalizer a short time later from midfielder and former Towson standout Pat Healey, who had struggled to score lately. In the team’s 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday, Healey put a header just over the crossbar late in the game.

After the score was tied, however, Palace lost their leading scorer, Gary Brooks (6 goals, 1 assist), for the game with a red card when he delivered an elbow to the head of Harrisburg midfielder Brian Devlin in the 36th minute. Things got worse when forward Val Teixeira, who scored the team’s only goal in the 2-1 loss on Sunday, picked up his second yellow and was ejected in the 76th minute.

But Palace’s defense, which has struggled in recent games, played strong, and when Harrisburg turned the ball over in stoppage time after the regulation 90 minutes, forward Sergio Flores turned the mistake into the winning goal.

Flores also has been in a recent drought since recording a goal and an assist in a 2-1 win over Real Maryland last month when he was named the USL Second Division Player of the Week.

“We have a very strong, deep squad,” Palace co-manager Jim Cherneski told reporters. “I don't feel like we miss a beat ... I feel our players are that good.”

Palace returns to the pitch on Sunday when it travels to Charlotte, N.C., to play the first-place Eagles (11-1-4) at 7 p.m.

dcarey@baltimoreexaminer.com