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The Monarchs dropped a 4-0 contest Saturday night in Harrisburg in a game that the City Islanders controlled from the opening whistle. Fatigue was clearly an issue for many Real Maryland players after an overtime game the night before in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.

Harrisburg opened the scoring in the second minute when defender Anthony Calvano turned in Yu Hoshide’s corner with his head after some poor marking by Maryland’s defense.

Maryland continued to endure heavy pressure for the next 15 minutes before settling into the game. Just as it seemed that they were getting back to even keel with the City Islanders, the Harrisburg side earned a penalty when Maryland defender Philippe Bissohang was forced to bring down Ryan Heins in the box.

Mo Odour coolly converted the penalty for Harrisburg to double their lead in the 36th minute. Monarchs goalkeeper Emilio Zelaya went to his left, but could only watch as the effort sailed into the other end of his goal.

Another mistake by Maryland led to Harrisburg’s third goal in first half stoppage time as Mo Odour sent Heins through on goal where he slotted past Zelaya to put the game out of reach for the Monarchs, barring a dramatic second-half turnaround.

Little changed though, coming out of halftime, and Harrisburg went right back to work controlling the pace of the game. Brian Obiji received a nice pass from Yu Hoshide, and beat Zelaya for the City Islanders’ fourth goal.

The game looked to be getting out of hand, but Maryland eventually found control of the game, although their fatigue still clearly showed as the struggled to create many serious threats to the Harrisburg goal.

A flashpoint came in the 82nd minute when Maryland’s Teodoro Ramirez and Harrisburg’s Almir Barbosa were sent off for an altercation away from the ball.

For the remaining time, Maryland played well and created several chances though Dennis Alas free kicks, and creative play by substitute Pablo Gomez, but they failed to finish and the game ended 4-0.

Next up for the Monarchs is a home game against the first-place Charlotte Eagles on Saturday night. Special attention will need to be played to the Eagles’ Dustin Swineheart who leads all scorers in USL-2 with an impressive ten goals in nine games.