1 week Ago
Two days before the Charleston Battery ’s season opener, striker Mathew Dylan "MD" Myers twisted his knee during a routine drill in training. The instant it happened Myers knew his season debut would have to wait a few more weeks. “It’s so frustrating because you do all that work in the offseason to get ready for the season and then you get a knock,” said Myers, who scored 17 goals for the Battery last season.
“You kind of have to regroup mentally, work through the rehab and almost start all over again. The toughest part was watching the boys play and not being able to be out there. You get hungrier and hungrier to get out there and score some goals with each match you miss.
” Myers returned to the field last week in a limited role against Tampa Bay and promptly scored a goal in the Battery’s 2-1 victory over the Rowdies, showing yet again why he is one of the most dangerous goal scorers in the USL Championship. Myers, 24, is expected to be more of a factor this weekend when the Charleston Battery take on the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on April 12 at 7:30 p.m.
on Ralph Lundy Field at Patriots Point. “Any time you can add a player that has scored 17 goals in a season, you are adding a threat to the lineup,” said Battery coach Ben Pirmann. “MD is an animal, he hunts, he works hard, he runs the channel.
If you play two guys up top, he can free people up top. When he subs in, he provides energy. “MD really helps the team in all four phases of the game.
He’s accountable, and when you add the fact that he can score goals, it provides us with a lot of options. Gives us different looks and forces our opponents back and hopefully that provides us with more scoring chances.” In 2024, Myers’ first season with the Battery, the former High Point and Rutgers standout, would have been a headliner for any other club.
Myers’ 17 goals and three assists were good enough to place him among the league’s top-10 scorers last summer. Myers recorded two hat tricks in 2024, the first in the U.S.
Open Cup against Tormenta FC and the second in the Southern Derby against North Carolina FC. Overall, Myers had four multi-goal games and scored five match-winners. But because Myers was playing alongside Nick Markanich, who had a historic season with a league-record 30 goals, the Delran, N.
J., native was nearly an afterthought in most scouting reports. The duo, dubbed the M&M Boys, combined for 42 regular season goals, setting a USL Championship record for most goals in a single season by an attacking pair.
“I definitely felt like we took pressure off of each other,” Myers said. “When Nick got things going, teams would concentrate on him, and when I started to score, teams would focus on me. I think that gave us both time and space that maybe we wouldn’t have had if we were not on the pitch together.
” Myers is breaking in another prolific goal scorer this season in forward Cal Jennings , who has scored more than 70 goals since joining the league in 2020. “Cal is another great player that we’ve been able to sign,” Myer said. “We’ve been working well together, and I’m excited to see where we can go the rest of the season.
Cal and Nick are different players. It doesn’t really change how I play — I’m going to still be me. “You also learn what the other guys like and don’t like and how we can benefit playing together.
I think we both bring things to the table that can make us both successful.”.
