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Jacksonville breaks records, Scorpions fall flat, and more from NASL week one

Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

Week one of the North American Soccer League season in now in the books, and there were some interesting results to note. Here's what happened in the four NASL matches that didn't involve the New York Cosmos:

Carolina RailHawks 3 - Ottawa Fury 1

The RailHawks and Fury kicked off the season with a nearly unwatchable performance, which featured multiple penalties, lots of cards, and some extremely poor refereeing. In the end, goals by Ty Shipalane, Nacho Novo, and Simone Bracalello were enough to see off the Fury, who got their lone goal from Brandon Poltronieri.

Jacksonville Armada 3 - FC Edmonton 1

The Armada set a modern-era NASL attendance record with a crowd of 16,164, and that wasn't the only record set by the expansion side during their first ever match. Former New York Cosmos player Jemal Johnson scored the fastest goal in modern NASL history, finding the back of the net just 12 seconds into Jacksonville's debut.

Alhassane Keita and Marcos Flores also scored for Jacksonville before the first half came to a close, before Ritchie Jones finally managed to find the back of the net for the Eddies in the second half. The result of this one wasn't in doubt for very long, however, and the Armada deservedly won their first match in very comfortable fashion.

Atlanta Silverbacks 1 - Indy Eleven 1

Atlanta was just moments away from starting the season with a victory, when the Eleven converted a stoppage time penalty to salvage a point from the contest. Shaka Bangura was the goalscorer for Atlanta just after the second half kicked off, while Don Smart was the man to equalize for Indy.

San Antonio Scorpions 1 - Tampa Bay Rowdies 3

Stefan Antonijevic, Darwin Espinal, and Corey Hertzog had this one all but settled just 61 minutes into the match, as the Rowdies made easy work of a sloppy Scorpions side. New signing Omar Cummings managed to make to scoreline look a little easier on San Antonio in second half stoppage time, but the damage had been done by that point.

Adding insult to injury, defender Julius James was sent off just before the match ended, and could be looking at a suspension because of it. The Scorpions currently have just five defenders on the roster.