With 24 goals in 26 appearances, Nick Markanich is on the verge of a historic season in the USL Championship for the Charleston Battery. | Photo courtesy Michael Wiser / Charleston Battery
Nick Markanich is a man on fire.
The Charleston Battery sharpshooter bagged his second hat trick of the season in Saturday night’s 6-0 romp past Orange County SC and is now on the verge of league and club history.
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LEADING THE NATION: Markanich’s 24 goals make him the leading scorer in men’s domestic soccer in the United States. He’s seven ahead of Real Salt Lake’s Chicho Arango and D.C. United’s Christian Benteke in the MLS regular season. (David Poreba of Chicago Fire II in MLS NEXT Pro has also bagged 17 goals.)
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HISTORY MAKER?: The 24-year-old is one goal from equaling the USL Championship’s single-season record of 25 goals, held by former Louisville City FC star Cameron Lancaster and former Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC star Hadji Barry. He’s also three goals away from equaling the Battery record of 27 goals in a season across all competitions, set by Paul Conway in 2001 – a couple of months before Markanich’s second birthday.
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PRECISION FINISHING: Markanich’s hallmark this season has been his precision. He’s converted 34.8 percent of his unblocked shots this season, which ranks first in the league, and his 24 tallies have come on an Expected Goals mark of 15.39xG per Opta, which ranks second.
USL Championship Scoring Record Evolution
2011 – Jhonny Arteaga, 13 goals
2013 – Dom Dwyer & José Angulo, 15 goals
2014 – Kevin Molino, 20 goals
2015 – Matt Fondy, 22 goals
2018 – Cameron Lancaster, 25 goals
2021 – Hadji Barry, 25 goals
Individually, Markanich has become one of the best stories in American soccer this season.
In addition to chasing the mark set by Lancaster and Barry, he could become only the second player after Lancaster to bag at least 20 goals with a strike rate under 100 minutes per goal. On top of that, there’s acknowledged interest from overseas in acquiring his services.
With eight games to go in the regular season, though, the biggest question is: How high is he going to raise the bar?
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