With the Rochester Rhinos entering Saturday’s match with a 24-game home unbeaten streak, Louisville City FC knew it had a difficult task to grab a positive result on the road.

Thanks to a first-half goal from Andrew Lubahn, City controlled its fate for a 1-0 victory.

“I thought the players showed tremendous fortitude,” Louisville Head Coach James O’Connor said. “I thought our play at times was really, really good. I thought we passed the ball well. I thought we had some good opportunities to score. The players deserve enormous credit to come to a place where they’re unbeaten so many games in the league.”

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Returning the favor to the defending champions, who ended their season in last year’s Eastern Conference Final, was not necessarily the motivating factor for City. For this current Louisville squad, it was rebounding from a 2-2 home draw against Wilmington Hammerheads FC.

“We came out with a lot of energy. We wanted a good response after the result last week,” George Davis IV said. “We felt like we wanted a win – that we should have won – and we want to stay at the top of the league. We want to continue to strive for our goals. I thought the attitude was spot-on. The mentality was good, and I thought we deserved three points.”

Louisville (9-1-4, 31 points) leads the Eastern Conference with 26 goals, and while the team only managed the one score, the club showed its intentions throughout with some aggressive play on the road.

“I think for us, we have tremendous belief in the players,” O’Connor said. “When we look at the group of guys we have, we want them to go and express themselves. It was important that we stuck to the ideas that we showed the guys, and they deserve enormous credit, because they listened to so many opportunities we thought we’d get. They capitalized on them.”