Louisville City Update: Matt Fondy Breaks Kevin Molino’s USL Scoring Record

It seems as time goes on that Orlando City’s place in the USL history books becomes more and more faded.

With a hat trick against the Harrisburg City Islanders — which gives him seven total goals against the Pennsylvania club — Louisville City forward and captain Matt Fondy jumped ahead of his competition in the USL goal scoring race to become the first player to break Orlando City midfielder Kevin Molino's single-season scoring record on Wednesday night at Louisville Slugger Field.

"Absolutely [it feels good to break the record]," Fondy said. "There's a thousand people I could thank. It feels great. No words."

Fondy ended the night with 21 goals, which is one more the the Trinidadian Molino scored with the USL version of Orlando City just last season in 2014.

"Kevin scored 20 goals, which was an incredible achievement," Louisville City Head Coach James O'Connor said of his former Orlando City teammate. "I think for Matt to go out and score 21 goals is a huge achievement. He scored 21 goals in the period of games that we've played, which is phenomenal. I think we've played 25 games and Matt's got 21 goals, it speaks for itself. He deserves all the credit. He's a great young man."

Fondy added a 22nd goal over the weekend against New York, and remains the league leader ahead of Danni Konig of Oklahoma City (20 goals) and Rob Vincent of Pittsburgh (18 goals).

Louisville City 4 – Harrisburg City Islanders 0

In the greater context of Louisville City's season, the win against Harrisburg Wednesday night meant not only a USL record for Fondy but place in the playoffs in the club's inaugural season.

"I've said it a few times, but I could not be prouder of those boys," O'Connor said after the match.

Behind a first half hat trick from Fondy and a fourth that was added in during the closing moments by Ilija Illic, Louisville wrapped up a place in the USL postseason in resounding fashion. The win was the team's second over Harrisburg by a combined score of 9-0.

"Overall I thought our play tonight, especially going forward, was excellent," said a happy O'Connor.

New York Red Bulls II 3 – Louisville City 2

On the heels of a midweek match, Louisville traveled to Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., to take on the New York Red Bulls reserve team. With a win, Louisville would have clinched home field in the conference semi-finals and a bye in the first round of the playoffs, but the Baby Bulls would have different ideas.

Louisville took the lead in the 19th minute when Fondy found Niall McCabe for the Irishman's third goal of the year. It was Fondy's sixth assist.

The home side answered back in the 26th when Manolo Sanchez found himself free on the far post to smash home a cross to tie it up.

Six minutes before the halftime break, Fondy chipped his 22nd goal of the season over keeper Santiago Castano for the lead at the half. That, however, would be the last goal for Louisville.

The second half was marked by the two sides' set piece chances. McCabe had an excellent chance to score from a free kick which hit the bar and New York would respond when Daniel Bedoya scored from a nearly identical free kick position on the other side of the field in the 71st minute. The MLS reserve side would find a winner in the 86th minute when Bolu Akinyode headed home a free kick to claim the come-from-behind victory for the hosts.

The loss is Louisville's first in which they scored a goal. Lou City will next take the field against the Charleston Battery on Saturday night at 7:30 with another chance to clinch the second seed in the USL Eastern Conference playoffs. The match will be Louisville's second to last of the regular season.