CINCINNATI – The crowd was in place for a memorable night at Nippert Stadium, and FC Cincinnati got off to an ideal start as Austin Berry’s seventh-minute goal gave the side an early lead.

Unlike the club’s home opener against Charlotte, however, on Saturday night its visitors showed their experience as a hat trick by Louisville City FC’s Chandler Hoffman spoiled the party for the majority of the USL regular-season record crowd of 20,497 as the visitors claimed a 3-2 victory on Saturday night.

“Obviously I would love to score a goal in a game that we won,” said Berry. “I think its two games in a row now that we have had a fantastic crowd that we get a goal at the beginning. It needs to be a full 90 minutes.”

The energized crowd’s intensity was matched early on by the hosts, who pushed last season’s Eastern Conference finalists on their heels early on. Berry’s powerful header from Tyler Polak’s free kick proved the high point as the Cincinnati native scored his second goal in as many games.

After a penalty kick by Chandler Hoffman got Louisville back on level terms, however, the game shifted in the visitor’s favor, with Berry disappointed in the way he and his side performed.

“We were not at our best tonight,” Berry said. “Speaking for myself I was not connecting on balls and we missed a lot of passes. Tried to get the game back. We will look at it on film and talk about it this week.”

That Cincinnati wasn’t able to get back into the game wasn’t for a lack of trying. Up a man for the whole second half following the sending off of Louisville’s Sean Reynolds in the 41st minute, the hosts put copious amounts of pressure on Scott Goodwin’s goal.

When Pat McMahon found the net in stoppage time, however, the slim chance Cincinnati had to earn a point quickly slipped away.

“I was just telling the guys that there are going to be opportunities where there’s a loss and we are going to have to learn from it,” said Cincinnati Coach John Harkes. “I thought we battled. We showed great deal of character and I thought we responded well. We got the second goal and give them credit. They [Louisville City FC] fought really hard.”

While the result didn’t finish the way the side had hoped, though, the passion of the support the club received in the first meeting between the River Cities Cup rivals left Harkes hungry for more.

“The crowd was absolutely incredible,” Harkes said. “The fans and the families that are here clearly shows that Cincinnati is easily ready for this market for soccer. The numbers that turned out tonight, they make a huge difference and I hope they can sustain it.”