Sporting Jax men's soccer earns first league win. Here's how

One goal went in off a shoulder. The other found the net off an opponent.

>Lucky, maybe. But for Liam Fox, these goals were priceless.

>"We got an element of luck with the goals, there's no getting away from that," the Sporting Club Jacksonville head coach said. "But I honestly believe if you keep working, the harder you work, the luckier you get."

>Fox and his Sporting Jax team are winners at last, earning their first-ever victory in USL Championship men's soccer and knocking off the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 2-1 on July 15 at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium.

>A half-season of frustration flipped the other way on both second-half scores, a bizarre pinball-style double ricochet off Kieran Sadlier and a deciding own goal off Pittsburgh defender Joao Victor Souza, combining to bring Sporting Jax (1-11-4) its milestone victory.

>It took 16 games, but Jacksonville's win column is no longer empty.

>"It's been a long time coming," Fox said.

DEFLECTIONS TURN GAME AROUND

>After more than four months foiled by mistakes and bad breaks, Sporting Jax saw the ball bounce their way for a change.

>Exhibit A came in the 50th minute. Sporting Jax right wingback Edgardo Rito zipped in a low cross and Sadlier fired a shot from the top of the box, a wildly-bounding ball that whacked off one Riverhounds defender, then another, and finally thumped against the upper body of Sadlier himself before fluttering into the net.

>The goal was Sadlier's eighth of the season, lifting him into a tie for sixth in the league scoring list.

>Exhibit B followed in the 79th minute, when Rito cut inside from the right and aimed a pass across the box. Substitute forward Ahmad Al-Qaq received it and drilled a low cross back to the right, where Riverhounds defender Souza lunged to block but instead redirected the ball into his own net.

>Suddenly, a once-losing game — Pittsburgh (6-6-2) had seized a 29th-minute lead when Trevor Amann punished a mistimed offside trap, putting away Eliot Goldthorp's assist — turned into a breakthrough.

>The league's last-place defense also showed much-needed improvement. Sporting Jax limited Pittsburgh to one shot on target in a winning debut for former Scotland national team center back Danny Wilson, whose previous clubs include Liverpool and Glasgow Rangers. Wilson worked all 90 minutes alongside team captain Ryan Edwards.

>For the first time in the team's short history, there's a different sense of momentum. Winning momentum. Less-than-conventional goals, after all, count just the same.

>"At this moment in time," Fox said, "I don't really care how they came."

>This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Sporting Jax men's soccer earns first league win. Here's how