Maybe you’re thinking, “Reading storm past the Royals? I thought Reading were the Royals.”

And you’d be right if we were talking about the team in England’s Coca Cola Championship League.

But we’re talking about Reading United—the Player Development Partner of the Philadelphia Union—and the North Virginia Royals, both of whom play in the USL’s Premier Development League. And after a pregame display of weather last Thursday that included rain, thunder, lightning and even some hail just to make things really interesting, Reading created some heavy weather of their own for the visiting North Virginia Royals.

Despite slick conditions that saw players from both sides slipping and sliding, Reading poured on the scoring chances in the first half and were rewarded with two goals before the mid-game break. After only twelve minutes of play the Royals starting keeper Chris Bresnahan was shown a red card after bringing Billy Schuler down in the box. Schuler promptly put the penalty kick past substitute keeper Jon Dawson and Reading were up 1-0.

In the 29th minute CJ Sapong headed in left back Ged Quinn’s service for Reading’s second goal of the night.

The Royals came out for the second half gunning for an chance to cut Reading’s lead in half. They found it when Reading turned the ball over in the midfield and Northern Virginia’s AJ Sheta’s effort from 30 yards out made its way over Reading United goalkeeper Jeremy Vuolo’s hands and into the back of the net.

Fifteen minutes later Reading sealed the win when speedy outside midfielder Mario Vila Boa finished a Luke Mulholland feed to make it 3-1.

With two consecutive home wins to start the season, Reading now go on the road to face West Virginia Chaos on Thursday, May 20 at Schoenbaum Stadium in Charleston. Reading are back at home on June 5 to host Carolina Dynamo.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Studio Photo. You can see his Flickr gallery of photos from the game here.