On a rainy night in Rhode Island, Birmingham Legion could not find the net ahead of a 1-0 defeat.

Making the trip to Centreville Bank Stadium for the second time this season, the Three Sparks were hoping to continue a cup run that’s provided a rare bright spot in an otherwise underwhelming season. After an embarrassing outing in their last game, they also needed a response from the players.

They got the latter, but it was not enough to ever truly trouble Rhode Island in what ended up a game of very few chances for either team.

“I just said to the guys, we’ve got 10 more quarterfinals coming up,” Mark Briggs said. “I’ve said to them all along that I can accept performances — you might not win all games, you might not play the greatest — but when you give effort and when you fight and you battle and you consistently want the ball, that was a performance that we can be proud of.

“It wasn’t the result that we wanted, don’t get me wrong,” he continued. “But that was a performance that we didn’t see against Hartford. That’s the difference. Yes we lost and that’s disappointing and we’ve got to shake that off, but I’m proud of those guys.”

Following the dismal Hartford performance, Briggs ran the changes with a few surprises for the USL Jägermeister Cup quartefinal. Maliek Howell, Phanuel Kavita, Samuel Shashoua and, perhaps most surprinsingly, Ronaldo Damus all lost their starting spots.

In their place, Stephen Turnbull, Sam McIllhatton, Ramiz Hamouda and Tiago Suárez came in. With no recognized striker on the field, Tregarthen took up the role, with Martínez at left winger.

“We lost 4-1 at home, and it was embarassing,” Briggs explained. “Something has to change.”

The lineup seemed to bear fruit in the opening 10 minutes as Legion’s front three of Tregarthen, Martínez and Tyler Pasher put Rhode Island under pressure time and again. With a wet surface and the ball fizzing about, there were several heavy touches for the forwards to pounce upon. Pasher nearly benefited from a turnover early on but could just not get the ball under control to take a shot.

But 10 minutes into the game, the Legion captain went down with an apparent muscle injury. The physio immediately signaled the need for a change, and Damus came on in the Canadian’s place in the 15th minute.

“It’s just one of those things, right?” Briggs said. “When it rains, it pours. Tonight, for the first 10 minutes I thought we were on top. We created good opportunities, we started positive, and then obviously Tyler getting injured takes a little bit of wind out of our sails.”

Briggs added that he was proud of the way his players kept going after that setback. However, with their chief creator no longer on the field, the Three Sparks struggled to create much of anything.

Similar to Birmingham, Rhode Island came into the game starved of goals, and it showed. The first shot of the game did not occur until the 27th minute, courtesy of Tregarthen.

After shining in the last two games, the young Uruguayan was once again one of his team’s brightest sparks. Combined with Turnbull, the two dominated the right side of the pitch, and that’s where the vast majority of Legion’s attacks came from in the first half.

Despite the few chances Tregarthen created, it made the team predictable. Briggs therefore adjusted in the second half by pushing Dawson McCartney higher up the field, playing more of a 4-2-3-1 in possession with Martínez now roaming inside almost as a 10.

“We wanted to have a threat to get in behind on the left-hand side, because Enzo’s not going to give you that,” Briggs said. “Enzo wasn’t getting any space to try and exploit and find the ball, so we needed someone to try and threaten vertically to open up that pocket.”

With the shift, Legion found some joy down both sides but also became more vulnerable on defense. Tregarthen got off two shots on target, but Matt van Oekel was called into action on three occasions, including a great one-on-one save after Albert Dikwa had gone through on goal.

But in the 74th minute, Rhode Island got the breakthrough.

Ramiz Hamouda was muscled off the ball near his goal by RIFC’s Dwayne Atkinson. The forward then strode into the box and fired past van Oekel for the only goal of the game.

It was an unfortunate moment for the 17-year-old centerback, who up till then had performed admirably despite the added responsibility of being the defense’s centermost centerback. He stayed on the ground a while after the goal had gone in and looked emotional walking off the field at fulltime as Amir Daley, Legion’s new loan signing, tried to comfort him.

“We’ve got to manage him and we’ve got to look after him,” Briggs said of the teenager. “I’m going to speak to him shortly. … But look, he’s 17. The mistake was obviously a big mistake, but other than that he was fantastic. But when we play young boys and when you try to develop people, these things are going to happen sometimes.”

Briggs attempted a final throw of the dice shortly after the goal, bringing on two forwards — Shashoua and Preston Tabort Etaka — for a midfielder and a defender — Martínez and Hamouda. However, the team’s comeback efforts where made even more complicated just as the assistant signaled for four minutes of added time.

With RIFC’s JJ Williams through on goal, Edwin Laszo dragged him down. The denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity resulted in a red card for the Colombian.

Shortly after, Dan Barlow, Legion’s Director of Sports Science and Performance, got himself sent off from the bench as he remonstrated with the referees’ decisions during those final few minutes. Even a man down, Legion still won a few more dangerous free-kicks and corners, sending van Oekel up for the final few, but the Three Sparks could not breach that Rhode Island defense.

With their cup run over, attention will have to quickly turn back to the league, with Legion in a precarious position. The Three Sparks host the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Saturday and will need to start winning soon if they are to retain any postseason hopes.

“It’s about staying positive,” Briggs said. “The performance tonight was a performance that we were proud of, although not the result we wanted. The performance was what we wanted, so now we have to continue that. That’s a step forward to our last performance, a massive step forward.”

Birmingham Legion host the Pittsburgh Riverhounds at 7 p.m. Saturday at Protective Stadium.

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