CARY — Last Sunday’s 4-0 Railhawk win could also have been called “The Gregory Richardson Show.” The recent pickup scored what, at the time, was the third hat trick in Railhawks history — though one was later disallowed — in a romp over Miami.

On Saturday evening at WakeMed Soccer Park, he had a little help. Richardson set up Joseph Kabwe’s goal and Sallieu Bundu and Andriy Budnyy scored in the second half en route to a 3-0 win. Carolina extended its shutout streak to 220 minutes and has scored eight goals during that time.

The win, Carolina’s league-leading 11th and seventh in eight games, came as the RailHawks carried a depleted roster. Amir Lowery and Daniel Paladini finished off suspensions and several other players were unavailable due to injury.

“Guys who haven’t been in the line-up are coming in and playing well, and that’s not normal,” head coach Martin Rennie said. “Normally if guys are out of the line-up, they drift in and out.”

The slumping Aztex were coming off a 1-0 loss to the Charleston Battery, which occured two nights earlier.

“We told each other we just needed to go flat-out because they played the other day and they lost,” Kabwe said. “They’re putting everything they’ve got into these games.”

Several minutes in, a Richardson set-up for Kabwe went just wide. In the 40th minute, the pair tried again and got it right. Richardson crossed to Kabwe, who dangled the ball for a moment then kicked it past goalkeeper Sam Reynolds while the Aztex scrambled to recover.

“The ball was played right to Greg Richardson and I knew he was going to beat his man,” Kabwe said. “When I was running to go I timed it, knowing that if I went in, everyone would rush me. I sat back at the far post and the ball came to me.”

In the 68th minute, Richardson was assigned a yellow card for diving but his team never lost a step. Moments later, Mark Schulte set up Bundu, who scored his team-leading fifth goal of the season. A Luke Kreamalmeyer free kick went to Shulte, who knocked it down. Bundu picked up the garbage.

“Whenever a team comes here we have to start well,” Rennie said. “It took us a while to score but once we did, I knew we had to get the next goal in the second half and it would open up.”

After a call on the Aztex, Budnyy’s penalty kick attempt went way high, soaring well over the goal and hitting the top of the stands in section 204, home of the Triangle Soccer Fanatics.

As his teammates before him, Budnyy’s second attempt was more successful. Budnyy took a Kreamalmeyer cross pass late in the game and finished the scoring. Kreamalmeyer streaked in one-on-one, and as he was pinched to the side he noticed Budnyy streaking in.

“[Brian] Plotkin saw me and he just put a ball perfectly in front of me,” Kreamalmeyer said. “I took a touch behind the defender but I saw Andre right in front of the net. I slid across and then he put it in."

Kreamalmeyer now has a goal and an assist in his last three games after scoring the lone goal in a 2-1 loss to Charleston July 24. Goalkeeper Eric Reed picked up the shutout.

The RailHawks, now tied for second place in the USL-1, will travel to Rochester on Wednesday. The Rhinos are two spots behind in the standings with 29 points to Carolina’s 36.