CARY, N.C. – On the verge of a highly successful week that had already seen the club reach the Quarterfinals of the 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, Louisville City FC instead saw its margin of error in the pursuit of top spot in the Eastern Conference narrow once again as a late goal by North Carolina FC led to a 2-2 draw on Saturday night at Sahlen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park.

The club’s third consecutive draw in league play came after Louisville had rallied to take the lead after going behind in the first half. Goals by Paco Craig and Ilija Ilic put the hosts in control with half-an-hour to go, but as in its draw with Penn FC a week ago City FC was unable to hold its lead as with three minutes to go NCFC’s Tiyi Shipalane wove through the right side of the penalty before sending a back-post cross that Daniel Rios tucked home for his second goal of the night.

Now five points back of Eastern Conference leader FC Cincinnati with two games in hand, the late concession when the side was so close to victory was tough to take for the visitors.

“Obviously, we were disappointed to concede so late,” said Louisville midfielder Niall McCabe. “When you have a 2-1 lead, you need to be able to close it out. We need to a better job of stopping the crosses into the box and defending the cross. We are just really disappointed, overall.”

The result wasn’t an ideal one for North Carolina either, but Rios’ seventh and eighth goals of the season at least secured a point for the hosts. NCFC remains six points out of the playoff positions after Saturday’s action, and now needs to make the most of a trip next Saturday to face regional rival the Richmond Kickers, where it will try to find a second road win of the season.

“We set a goal to come out and get three points and we came up short,” said NCFC midfielder Steven Miller. “I think we played a good second half, went down a goal and battled back and got the draw. We said we wanted three and got one against a really good team so there’s positives to take from it. It’s a confidence builder heading into Richmond.”

Louisville had looked as though it was going to weather a second half that saw its hosts outshoot it 12-4, with Ilic’s patience on the go-ahead goal in the 59th minute after a shot by McCabe deflected to him in the penalty area appearing to have made the difference in the game until Shipalane and Rios’ late heroics. The defending USL Cup champion will now face a quick turnaround as it hosts Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC on Wednesday night in a top-three clash with the staunchest defense in the league.

With the race to catch Cincinnati tightening, Louisville left North Carolina in the mood to turn a disappointing ending into a positive moving forward.

“It’s a totally different game, but we just need to address what happened tonight,” said McCabe. “Learn from it and put it behind us. We’ll look at [Riverhounds SC’s] strengths and weaknesses. See what we can improve upon and come in with a better mentality. It’s important that we bounce back [from tonight’s result]. It feels like a loss, but it is what it is.”