Rhode Island FC Officially Crowned USL Championship's Draw Kings

The Draw Kings etched their name in USL Championship history

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

This story has been lurking for Rhode Island FC all season.

The Tide had accrued nine of their now fifteen draws by June 12, in what was just their fourteenth game of the season (along with just one win and four losses). It took Rhode Island until tonight, fully four months and eight days later, to earn the last of these final six draws and set the USL Championship record for draws in a season.

Since that last June tie, Rhode Island FC has won ten matches, drawn six, and lost just three. This sixth came 1-1 against Charleston Battery in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

In June, RIFC setting the USL Championship’s draw record was seen as an inevitability — their play since then had proven it to be anything but — as their points average in their last nineteen matches extrapolated over a season would be good for second best in the entire league with 63 expected points in the timeframe. It’s now clear that while Rhode Island FC are the Draw Kings — as even one of the best stretches of play in the entire league couldn’t undo the momentum they’d built up — head coach Khano Smith has put together a competitive side that just needed time to gel. Saturday night we saw how they became an expansion team competing with the best sides in the league for a playoff place and how they became the Draw Kings in the first place.

Rhode Island FC both earned the draw and dropped points in this match. Charleston outshot the Tide 9-6, and they had several good chances, including two that RIFC goalkeeper Koke Vegas made great stops on. Vegas was, however, also very much at fault for Charleston’s lone goal.

Charleston winger Juan David Torres took a long, hard, curling shot from outside the box, which bounced off Vegas’ chest and landed within his grasp. Vegas was unable to get more than his glovetips on it, and Charleston striker MD Myers poached the ball to fire it past the goalkeeper in the 71st minute.

This second-half goal was a comeback goal for Charleston. They’d gone down 1-0 to Rhode Island in first-half stoppage time, as RIFC midfielder Marc Ybarra played forward Noah Fuson in on goal — Fuson brilliantly beat multiple Charleston players in the attempt — and Fuson fired it past Charleston goalkeeper Adam Grinwis to the far post for the lead.

However, just as his teammate Vegas endured both boom and bust in this match, so too did Fuson. In the 82nd minute, RIFC midfielder Jojea Kwizera played fellow midfielder Jack Panayotou in on goal with a dangerous pass. So dangerous a pass, in fact, that Charleston goalkeeper Grinwis fouled Panayotou in the box to keep him from taking a shot. The result was a penalty given to Rhode Island FC. Fuson took it in the 83rd minute, but his attempt was tame and Grinwis saved it with relative ease before pouncing on the rebound as both teams clustered around him, preserving the score at 1-1.

Charleston subbed former Rhode Island FC forward Prince Saydee on shortly after, but the change made no difference, and the game ended 1-1.

Much may be made of Rhode Island FC setting the draw record in their first season in the USL Championship — fifteen certainly is a lot of draws, no matter how you slice it — but far more should be made of how this team has played since they began coming together in the summer. It started with a 5-2 away drubbing of the league leaders, Louisville FC, and since then Rhode Island has won many more games that some would have suggested that it had no business even drawing.

The playoffs, however, are still not a lock for Rhode Island FC. They stand in fifth place, with four teams capable of overtaking them, depending on how different results from different games go, but Rhode Island FC ultimately control their own destiny. There is only one match left in RIFC’s inaugural USL Championship season, and if they win it, Rhode Island FC will be playoff-bound.

That match comes next Saturday, October 26, at 8 pm ET at Beirne Stadium in Smithfield, Rhode Island, as Rhode Island FC takes on last-place Miami FC to seal their place in the USL Championship playoffs. In the last meeting, in Miami on July 13, Rhode Island won a 3-2 shootout against their opponent.