Photo: Sean Simmers/Penn Live

The Harrisburg City Islanders have been one of the top USL PRO teams of the last few years. A perennial playoff contender, the City Islanders have reached at least the quarterfinals the past three years and advanced past the first round of the U.S. Open Cup every year since 2007.

This season has not been their best. They won only two of their first ten games and, for the first time in a long time, Harrisburg actually lost more regular season games than they won, and only snuck into the playoffs as the eighth seed. That said, they appear to be peaking at the right time, as they won their opening playoff game over the top seed (and MLS-bound) Orlando City SC via an Antoine Hoppenot goal, then defeated the Richmond Kickers 3–2 behind the very strong play of ex-Union man Morgan Langley, who scored the opening goal, helped create the second, and assisted the third. They will now play the Sacramento Republic for the USL PRO championship. Quite the turnaround.

And they really have Langley to thank. Not given the start against Orlando, Langley quickly put his stamp on the Richmond game. Scoring in the 27th, Langley consistently kept Harrisburg one step ahead of the Kickers. While the Virginians equalized shortly after, it was Langley’s through ball in the 45th minute that produced the goal that gave them the lead for good just before halftime. And Langley put the game to bed in the 76th, winning a challenge on halfway then feeding a long diagonal to Danny DiPrima for the winner.

Langley has had a season littered with a few outstanding performances, and his coach, Bill Becher, had this to say:

Morgan was huge. He came to play. I think he was a little disappointed that he didn’t start last week [in Orlando], but man did he answer the ball tonight. He scored the first goal, he played the ball that put Bahner behind the defense and led to the second goal and he assisted on the third goal. . . . It was a great effort from the whole team, but I thought Morgan did what he can do tonight — which is cause a lot of trouble.

Langley failed to make an impact in his short time as an MLS player, but if he continues to perform so well—perhaps leading his team to a USL Pro championship?—then he might just get another shot.

Honorable mention: Harrisburg goalkeeper Nick Noble. After the shutout win over Orlando in the quarterfinals, Noble made 5 saves in Harrisburg’s win over Richmond.