Team now third after 3 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss in last 6
With its participation in the Jägermeister Cup now concluded, the USL League One fixtures are arriving thick and fast for One Knoxville SC at this point in the 2025 season. Quite a lot has happened since we last reported on the squad; to catch up, we will briefly recap the homestand that featured games on July 30 and Aug. 2 before taking a more detailed look at the club’s last quartet of matches.
Moderate rainfall before kickoff and lingering high humidity led to sparse attendance and passive engagement for the midweek matchup July 30 against Charlotte Independence, but the action on the pitch was both wet and wild. Knoxville captain Jordan Skelton got his side off the mark early with a goal in just the 2nd minute, but Charlotte equalized on 24 and went 2-1 up in the second half with a 67th-minute tally. Stavros Zarokostas then knotted the score at 2-2 with a good strike in the 79th minute that rescued a point for One Knox.
Though not furious at the start, the intensity picked up as the match progressed. With both sides enjoying attacking spells throughout and play getting stretched the longer it went on, either team could have come out on top in what was an even, physical contest that featured several yellow cards and almost a full complement of substitutions. One of those backups was Jamie Thomas, who earned a well-deserved round of applause when he came on late to make his season debut.
The stands at Covenant Health Park were dotted with orange and white the following Saturday for Vols Night, and the home team capitalized on the festive atmosphere by procuring a 1-0 victory versus the visiting Portland Hearts of Pine. The winning goal came via a deceptively powerful long-range effort by Mikkel Gøling in the 37th minute. The shot seemed to take an eternity to find the net, but it flew just inside the right post past the extended fingertips of the diving goalkeeper, and Knoxville managed to hold onto its narrow lead for the rest of the game.
Although the final score was preferable to that of the previous match, the proceedings were rather similar. One Knox again outshot its opponent, but possession was almost split, and the result could have gone either way had Portland taken better advantage of its opportunities in front of goal. Though passing lanes and offensive thrusts weren’t as plentiful and the overall game wasn’t as beautiful, there were even more fouls and warnings, and once more only one sub was left unused. The three points were important, however, especially as the home side begins to make up the games it has in hand.
Notably, the University of Tennessee’s women’s team made an appearance that evening, posting up on the concourse to sign autographs and pose for photos with fans ahead of its season opener Aug. 14 against top-ranked North Carolina, the defending national champion. The winning ways might have rubbed off on the Lady Volunteers, as they toppled the Tarheels 2-0 at Regal Soccer Stadium, the former home of One Knox, before thrashing Eastern Kentucky and going on the road to California to defeat No. 4 UCLA and Loyola Marymount.
This is the first UT side in program history to beat a No. 1, and it has yet to concede a single goal – even against two of the truest blue bloods in the collegiate ranks. After starting the season outside of the Top 25, the women have vaulted to No. 2 in the United Soccer Coaches poll and to No. 4 in TopDrawerSoccer.com’s rankings. Do yourself a favor and go support this very likable team as it continues its so-far unblemished 2025 campaign.
While Forward Madison has struggled thus far this season, it had been more than competitive in its two prior meetings with Knoxville, winning a cup tilt and drawing away in the league. And although Breese Stevens Field is hardly a fortress, it does present a tricky environment for traveling teams. However, coming into this game in the Wisconsin state capital with a nearly full-strength squad and a bit of momentum, One Knox would have felt confident in its ability to secure the maximum number of points.
The Scruffy Boys would have felt even better about that prospect when, five minutes before halftime, a throw-in from the left touchline in the final third found Mikkel Gøling, who played the ball down the line to Babacar Diene. Having drifted out wide during the move, the striker just stayed onside and took a couple of touches before abruptly cutting inside his defender, totally losing him in the process. He then unleashed a low screamer that easily beat Bernd Schipmann. The shot was centrally placed, but it was hit so cleanly and with such pace that the keeper had no chance of reacting quickly enough to stop it.
On the other side of the break, it took only five minutes for the Flamingos to pull even. The initial service into the box from a corner on the right was well cleared, but Madison retained possession and worked the ball back over to the right. Jacob Crull, the defender whose left foot provided the tying score in the first league match between the sides at CHP, allowed a short pass to move across his body in order to sidestep a pressing Nico Rosamilia and used the same foot to whip a tantalizing ball to the back stick. The curled cross evaded the entire backline and met the head of Michael Chilaka, who nodded it across goal where it was tapped in at the far post by Derek Gebhard.
It was almost 2-0 when a sharp one-two released Lucca Dourado into the penalty area. His low cross just missed the boot of Gebhard and squirted out over the endline. For the first 15 minutes of the half, in fact, Madison pushed forward in waves, keeping the ball on the fringe of Knoxville’s box and trying to break down its defensive posture with creative passing movements. Sensing the shift that had taken place, manager Ian Fuller looked to his bench for a change and sent on Kimarni Smith and newcomer Lucas Meek for Rosamilia and Diene, respectively, just past the hour mark.
The latter charge, a onetime star forward at the University of Washington who was added to the roster recently due to the prolonged absence of Kempes Tekiela and Mark Doyle, made an immediate impact on his One Knox debut with his disciplined and dedicated high pressing, which, in conjunction with that of his teammates, forced Madison to retreat into its own half in order to keep possession. Smith swiftly employed his speed to great effect, as well; shortly after entering, he made a run down the right flank, and he was unlucky not to have drawn a spot kick on what looked to be a clumsy challenge in the penalty area. Their introduction together altered the course of the match and indirectly led to the go-ahead goal in the 65th minute.
Having been sent flying over the right touchline on a foul from behind, Jaheim Brown exchanged words and chuckled with opposing fans sitting on the other side of the advertising boards as he dusted himself off. The right back would have the last laugh soon enough, though, as Callum Johnson’s free kick arced invitingly to the top of the goal box and found the head of Sivert Haugli, who had knifed into the area and carved out a sizable chunk of space for himself by virtue of his considerable physique. The Norwegian leaned forward and guided a headed effort into the near-post side netting to reassert One Knox’s advantage.
The home side maintained the bulk of possession following the tally but didn’t do much with it, and Knoxville’s pressure yielded a solid chance off of a turnover in the 72nd minute. Johnson intercepted a pass in midfield and played it forward. Moving from the center to the left, the ball ended up on the right foot of Stavros Zarokostas, whose deflected shot looped up into the air. Reacting before any of the surrounding defenders to the ball’s trajectory, Meek lunged at it and sliced it goalward with his left instep. Schipmann was beaten, but it clanged off the post and over the endline for a goal kick.
After a series of corners, Meek again was at the center of a promising attack. Chasing a volleyed long ball by Angelo Kelly, he bumped into the back of the lone defender who was attempting to shield him from it. The contact was minimal, but the defender flopped dramatically to the ground just as Meek adroitly flipped the ball over the keeper. It was halfway into the net when the referee blew play dead. The former Husky was incredulous that it was stopped for a foul, but it wasn’t the last opportunity he had to make it 3-1.
Starting an attack on the left flank in the 84th minute, Stuart Ritchie played a delayed give-and-go with Gio Calixtro, who had just replaced Zarokostas on the wing. When the fullback received the return pass, he sent a first-time ball into the path of Meek, who faked a shot with his left peg and cut inside his defender to go one-on-one with Schipmann from 12 yards out. The touch was a bit heavy, though, and made the angle tougher than it should have been. Still, he made solid contact and dragged a shot that the keeper was able to repel with his trailing leg. A tidier control, and Meek might have iced it for One Knox.
After the controversial call nullifying what would have been an insurance goal and the missed chances, the match was balanced on a razor’s edge as it went into extra time. In the last few minutes of regulation, the Mingos had tightened their grip on the flow of the game and pushed farther and farther forward as a unit in an attempt to salvage a draw. And in the 91st minute, the stress finally paid off when Chilaka bent a towering ball into the box from deep on the right. Garrett McLaughlin, a proven scorer at this level, fended off a handsy challenge from Skelton and headed the cross into the upper 90 at the near post.
The accuracy of the header ensured that Sean Lewis could do nothing about it, but he did redeem himself less than a minute before the final whistle sounded when a long ball eluded the Knoxville defense and fell to a wide-open Madison attacker. Bounding off his line, the netminder stopped a point-blank shot on frame with his face to preserve the point. Lewis wasn’t called on much during the match, but his bravery at that crucial moment was the difference between two dropped points and three.
Though disappointing, the stoppage-time equalizer was the product of sustained possession and pressure, a pinpoint delivery and a clinical finish in an area of the goal that couldn’t be protected. The result was far from ideal, particularly after having held a second-half lead for so long and so late. But continued weather-related issues affecting the pitch at CHP (more on that later) at least meant that One Knox had a full week to rest, recover and regroup for its next match at home Aug. 16 against Union Omaha.
Unfortunately, neither the head ref nor the pair patrolling the touchlines for this steamy weekend encounter had a good night. Irrespective of perceived bias, their collective inconsistency, intrusive micromanagement and objectively poor decision-making marred what otherwise would have been a classic confrontation. Criticizing officiating is low-hanging fruit, but these irritations were palpable among both coaching staffs – though they were far more evident in the expressions and mannerisms of Ian Fuller and his assistants – and supporters alike.
The Knoxville squad was heavily rotated from previous iterations, with Gio Calixtro, Kimarni Smith and Jamie Thomas earning rare inclusions in the starting lineup. Lucas Meek, playing the No. 10 role in his first start for the club, was lively early, coming close with a twisting, backheeled effort off of an incisive Thomas cross in the 18th minute and flashing inside the goal box for an attempted diving header in the 32nd. Goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu likely had the former covered, but he would have been helpless had Meek connected on the latter, which resulted from a nice buildup featuring extended possession, good holdup and distribution from Babacar Diene and superior vision on the cross from Stuart Ritchie.
While that last move emanated from the left flank, One Knox was most effective throughout the match going down the right. It drew yellows on three different Omaha defenders for run-stopping fouls on that side through the first 51 minutes of the match, and, retaking the field following the first-half hydration break, the home side nearly broke the deadlock in the 36th on that wing.
Callum Johnson won a 50/50 ball from a throw-in and worked a triangular trio of passes with Thomas and Smith to perfection, and the right winger pushed into the penalty area and sent in a cross to Meek. In a prime position to pounce, the ready forward hammered a low shot on goal that Nuhu somehow kept out. He smashed a follow-up off of the post, and, with the keeper laying prone, a third try by Calixtro was cleared off the line by a defender. The sequence was deserving of a goal, but Omaha escaped unharmed, and the score remained level as halftime approached.
Not long after the restart, Knoxville won a free kick from a central position just outside of the penalty area, and Diene bent a low curler around the wall and on frame, but it was read and saved easily by Nuhu. In the 52nd minute, after Smith was hacked down by one of the aforementioned challenges that resulted in a card, Diene nodded the ensuing free kick by Johnson off of a defender’s shoulder and into the keeper’s waiting arms. Four minutes later, the pair combined again in similar fashion after a cleared corner, this time more convincingly as the Senegalese striker headed the cross onto the base of the near post and into the net.
Before the team could celebrate, however, the goal was chalked off, presumably for offside, although it wasn’t clear as to who was responsible for the infringement. The scorer appeared to hold his run, but Johnson, who had taken the corner, may not have been able to get back onside before getting back on the ball. Neither looked to be off from my perspective inside CHP, though, and replays from the ESPN+ broadcast proved to be inconclusive. Already upset at how the game had been called to that point, the crowd voiced its displeasure, and Diene made his feelings known, as well. It was no surprise, then, when he was cautioned for taking out his man while going up for a contested header a few minutes later.
Left back Marco Milanese should have been shown a second yellow in the 65th minute for bringing down Stavros Zarokostas, in for Smith on 57, on the same flank that had been such a problem for the away side. Aside from denying the Greek winger unfettered access to the endline, it was yet another in a long line of cynical challenges that were worthy of further punishment. Having affianced itself to an impressive amount of shithousery – routinely stepping in front of free kicks, kicking the ball away after whistles, pithily arguing almost every infraction, etc. – since the opening kickoff, Omaha finally had a player receive a card for delaying a restart with one such action less than a minute later.
On the succeeding possession, Abel Caputo and Jaheim Brown, who had entered the contest along with Nico Rosamilia to begin the second half, exchanged one-two passes in the center of the park before transferring the ball wide to Zarokostas on the right. In a single motion, he rolled it with his studs away from his body and whipped it into the box to Diene, who was standing near the penalty spot. Springing skyward between two defenders, he generated substantial torque and lasered a header back across goal to the near post for a breathtaking breakthrough tally.
The spectacular finish was one that required tremendous skill, timing and foresight from all parties, and that it arrived as the satisfying end product of a protracted movement added to its aesthetic beauty. Exorcising his earlier frustrations, Diene turned and sprinted toward the advertising boards on the far side of the pitch; hollering in delight with his arms outstretched, he leapt and performed a muted CR7 “Siuuu!” celebration before being mobbed by a host of teammates. Eschewing journalistic integrity, I found myself – along with virtually everyone else in the stadium – rising to my feet and applauding the stunning effort, which would go on to win League One Goal of the Week for that round of matches.
Omaha almost tied it up straightaway following the restart, though, with a low cross from the left bouncing up just before a sliding attacker made contact with it. Although he shinned it, the shot flew over the bar but dangerously close to the goal. With the away side pressing forward for an equalizer, Knoxville parked the bus for the remainder of the match. Angelo Kelly was sent on with around 10 minutes left to play, and the substitution was impactful. A calming and steadying presence, he efficiently squeezed opponents in midfield, dropped back to provide coverage inside his own penalty area and popped out to be a conduit when One Knox was in possession.
He couldn’t keep Omaha from rattling the crossbar with a turnaround effort in the 87th minute, though, and Lewis had to dive well to his right to get a palm on a firm 20-yard shot in the 89th. A header on 93 floated past the keeper and was cleared off the line by Brown, but it was ruled (perhaps incorrectly judging by replays) to have been offside. Zarokostas had an opportunity to seal the victory a minute later on the other end; his chip from the edge of the penalty area beat Nuhu but bounced off the front of the bar. That, however, would be the last significant action in a whirlwind 1-0 match that saw the home side get the better of its opponent for the first time in club history.
In order to accomplish the same feat against the Richmond Kickers the following Wednesday, One Knox would have to do it on the road – even though the clash was supposed to have been a home game. Originally postponed from June 13 when field conditions, equipment complications and inclement weather conspired in the match being abandoned, the makeup scheduled for Aug. 13 at CHP was deferred another week and moved to Virginia after heavy rainfall again negated play at the venue. Given the expense and annoyance of twice traveling across state lines only for nothing to manifest and the fact that the teams were already slated to meet in the Old Dominion again on Aug. 23, it made sense for back-to-back games to be held in the same location.
If the Richmond players were angered by the disruption to their itinerary and were looking forward to exacting revenge for the inconvenience, they certainly didn’t play like it. Failing to exploit the unexpected home advantage afforded it, the side came out flat at City Stadium. Knoxville should have had the lead after just 10 minutes when Babacar Diene, unmarked on an Abel Caputo corner from the left, rose unobstructed in the goal box and drove a header downward. Had he directed it to either side of James Sneddon, he would have found paydirt. As it were, the effort rebounded hard off of the turf and straight up at the goalkeeper. Still, the 19-year-old had to react hastily in order to push it over the bar, which he did.
Sean Lewis saved a strong shot to the middle of his goal in the 12th minute before play turned to the other end. Gathering possession of a loose ball on the halfway line in the 15th, Mikkel Gøling galloped forward while resisting a persistent, pesky challenge and sent it to Kimarni Smith on the right. Briefly squaring up to his defender, Smith performed an inside-out move, took an extra touch to get fully past him and flicked a trivela into the goalmouth with his left foot that the Copenhagen native, who had continued his run unencumbered, tucked into the net for his fourth tally of the season.
The Dane was presented with another good look at goal on 19. Caputo stymied a Richmond attack and started a counter by feeding the ball to Angelo Kelly. Dribbling forward into space, Kelly found Gøling on the right. Allowing the center back to glide over and sight the keeper, Gøling launched a rocket toward the near post, but the effort flew narrowly wide of the stick and landed in the side netting.
The Kickers spent the next several minutes on the front foot, and the Richmond fans felt like they had a shout for a penalty at the half-hour mark. It was a halfhearted appeal, though, and even the attacking player that went down in the area didn’t bother remonstrating to the officials. Caputo received a caution for a tackle from behind 10 minutes before the break, but the resulting shot hit the wall, and the Venezuelan midfielder was key in formulating the next Knoxville attack.
Linking up with Kelly on a one-two in the 39th minute, Caputo saw Gøling making a run through a central channel and slotted a first-time through ball that hit him in stride. Blocking off his defender to create a one-on-one with Sneddon, Gøling had a lot of net at which to aim and should have extended the lead, but he fluffed his lines and indelicately shot well over the bar. Barely a minute later, Nico Rosamilia overlapped Smith on the right, accepted a pass, cut inward and attempted to play the ball into the center of the area. It took a sharp deflection off the boot of a defender and hurtled toward the bottom corner of the goal. Only another excellent save from the young netminder kept the game within reach of the home side.
It was Darwin Espinal’s turn to trouble the Knoxville defense just before the break. The Honduran forward wove through the heart of the box before pushing a gentle shot toward Lewis. Even if it hadn’t been tempered by a sliding Jaheim Brown, the veteran keeper probably had it covered. One Knox entered the half with a decided edge in possession and looked poised to extend its unbeaten run in the league to eight.
Chandler O’Dwyer nearly tested Lewis four minutes into the second half on a free kick from a little under 30 yards, but his powerful effort curved just wide. Smith pumped in a left-footed shot from about the same distance a short time later, but it was hit directly at Sneddon. Then, in the 53rd minute, One Knox demonstrated the formidable rapidity with which it can score.
Starting at Lewis’ feet, the ball went to Sivert Haugli, who connected with the vertical run of Rosamilia. The rookie looked up and found Stuart Ritchie streaking down the left flank, and the left back played a brilliant one-time cross to Diene, who headed it low and on frame. Sneddon did well to get down to make the initial save, but it was too forceful to hang onto, and he spilled it in front of the striker, who buried the second chance with a side-footed finish with his left. All in all, the splendid move comprised just 10 seconds.
Haugli used a shoulder to muscle an attacker off of the ball in the Knoxville penalty area in the 58th minute. It was on the fringe of being illicit, but the replay suggested that a no-call was the correct choice. Ritchie saw yellow just after the hour mark when he used too much of his body to impede an attacker, and both sides made a raft of changes – Richmond deployed all five subs at once – a few ticks later.
With those newly introduced players not yet accustomed to the speed of the game, the Kickers were fortunate not to promptly give up a third goal. A smart dummy in midfield allowed a forward ball to run through to Smith, who turned and found the run of Diene. Bearing in straight on goal, the striker understandably went the selfish route and elected for a shot, but he had a better option at the back stick in Rosamilia, who was camped out all alone and slumped to the ground in disbelief when he didn’t receive a pass. Sneddon pulled off yet another blinding save, getting a hand on the drilled effort and glancing it over the bar.
Rosamilia almost got on the scoresheet in both the 82nd and 84th minutes from around the same part of the penalty area, but his first shot was blocked at the last moment, and he screwed his second well wide. Lucas Meek came on as a late sub and was the recipient of a couple very tough tackles in his limited time, and he clearly felt those as he hobbled gingerly around the center circle for the next few minutes. He was able to join the play deep into extra time, however, even earning a spot kick when he was manhandled and thrown to the ground by an obviously disgruntled defender.
Dani Fernandez, who had entered on 73 minutes, stepped up to take it, and the placement of his shot was impeccable. But like he had for the entire evening, Sneddon stood on his head one final time and denied the defender with a sprawling save to his left. His sixth stop of the night was the last bit of action before the full-time whistle and ensured that he would take home man-of-the-match honors. Had he not been gargantuan between the pipes, the scoreline likely would have been much worse than 2-0.
Entering the game, One Knox was fourth in the League One table; at its conclusion, it had climbed into third. Three days later, the two teams reconvened at City Stadium, but the away side was unable to do the double over the Kickers, as Richmond came away with a slim 1-0 victory. While Ian Fuller’s troops settled into its standard 4-2-3-1 formation, the home team reconfigured as a more dynamic 3-5-2. Given the concision between matches, there was some rotation from both clubs. With Meek suffering the late injury 72 hours prior, the good news for Knoxville was that Kempes Tekiela was fit enough to find a spot on the bench.
One Knox had a chance to draw first blood in the 6th minute from a short corner on the left. Callum Johnson flighted a ball to the right of the box that fell to Fernandez, and the defender rapped a left-footed effort off a section of the bar near the far post. The first 25 minutes, in fact, was dominated by the visitors, who enjoyed the bulk of possession, much of it in the Richmond half.
The tide began to turn soon thereafter, however, as Joshua Kirkland led a couple attacks that threatened the Knoxville backline. On the first, he got on the end of a threaded pass, turned Jordan Skelton and fired a shot that deflected over Sean Lewis and barely over the bar and lodged in the top netting. The second saw Skelton and Stuart Ritchie recovering to slow the forward’s run and the former blocking his shot. Both resulting corners were dangerous, with the second being particularly worrisome. As the ball was recycled around the pitch after the initial kick, it was sent on a rope from the right to the corner of the goal box on the left but just behind the head of towering defender Marcelo Lage.
Almost the hero on the offensive end, Lage nearly turned into a zero in a matter of moments when his back pass to James Sneddon directly from Lewis’ goal kick was played too far wide of the keeper, who had to race back and shield the ball from an alert Babacar Diene to prevent the striker from converting the mistake into a goal. The ball crossed the endline for a corner, but Fernandez snapped his open header high of the goal.
Richmond’s setup meant that it could be aggressive in pushing its wingbacks forward or reverting to a back five if necessary. As the first half progressed, the Kickers frequently chose the former tact, which stretched the field and kept Knoxville confined to its own half. This vigorous approach was rewarded with a 33rd-minute move down the left flank that led to a score in the 34th. Kirkland again was at the heart of the menace, as his run onto a penetrating through ball prompted a corner.
One Knox is an athletic bunch, but it isn’t an especially tall unit aside from Sivert Haugli, Skelton and Mikkel Gøling. Haugli wasn’t in the matchday squad, Skelton was minding the front post for this corner and Gøling didn’t appear to be in the box, and the 6-foot-5 Lage exploited the height differential by nodding home what amounted to a free header for the center back.
Emiliano Terzaghi almost made it two for the home side a couple minutes later after Kirkland made a darting run down the right, drawing multiple defenders from the middle of the penalty area where he was able to find the Argentine. Skelton came up big with another block on the shot. One Knox stemmed the tide toward the end of the half, reestablishing ownership of the ball and peppering Sneddon’s goal with shots and crosses, culminating in Johnson slotting a pass to Stavros Zarokostas, who split two defenders and laced a wicked shot that beat Sneddon at his near post but skimmed off the top of the bar.
Johnson, playing on the left of the holding midfield pivot, delivered a cross into the box in the 44th minute that was headed out to Gøling, who was lurking on the edge of the area. Taking a quick touch, he swiveled and hit a low shot that took a slight deflection and squibbed just wide of the far post. As with all of One Knox’s first-half efforts, close but no cigar, and the team trailed by a goal at the break.
Covering the back post on a 50th-minute corner, Johnson cleared a low drive by Richmond captain Dakota Barnathan off the goal line. From that point until the end of the match, Knoxville took the initiative in going forward and pressed mightily in an attempt to get something from it.
Getting involved immediately after replacing Zarokostas on 58, Kimarni Smith received a pass from Diene, dribbled to the top of the key and ripped a curled effort with his left peg that took a short hop before pinging off the far post and out of play. Four minutes after that, with the Kickers fully compacted inside their own penalty area, Ritchie delivered a cross to the back stick that Smith jumped to meet and direct toward the near post. Mimicking his Wednesday performance, Sneddon tracked the ball’s flight and foiled the winger with a superb stop.
Gøling pulled a contested header wide in the 77th minute; Diene looped a header over the bar in the 86th; Tekiela (subbed in on 76 for his first action in months – a very welcome sight on an otherwise exasperating night) drew a good save from Sneddon on a free kick from a tight angle in the 87th; and Ritchie made decent contact on a header on goal in the 90th, but it was all to no avail. Unable to pull enough strings to break through Richmond’s defensive shell and hitting the woodwork on three occasions, One Knox lost 1-0 in a game it utterly dominated (61% possession, 23 shots to 10, 83% pass completion versus 70%) for all but a fleeting segment of the first half.
Dropping three points hurts in the overall standings and ends Knoxville’s unbeaten run in League One at eight, but the clubs chasing the Scruffy Boys didn’t fare well in the latest set of matches, either, which means they retained third place heading into Week 26. The next stretch will be vital for the team, as it returns home to take on FC Naples, fourth in the league and trailing One Knox by just a point, on Wednesday, Aug. 27 and second-place Spokane Velocity FC on Saturday, Aug. 30. Knoxville hasn’t faced those squads since the opening rounds of the season, so these games should be interesting litmus tests. Local fans will be circling Sept. 6 on their calendars, as well: Former gaffer Mark McKeever has taken the reins of South Georgia Tormenta FC on an interim basis, and his Pelicans will host One Knox in Statesboro on that date.
