When John O’Hara signed with the RailHawks this spring, he expected to be Carolina’s regular starter in goal.

At the time, Carolina didn’t have another goalkeeper on the roster.

Then Chris McClellan emerged from nowhere and has turned out to be one of the USL-1’s top goalkeepers.

As a result, O’Hara was left on the bench. Before getting the start against Chicago Sunday, he’d played just once.

But Carolina coach Scott Schweitzer, looking to change his lineup a bit after Friday’s late-minute loss to Montreal and to give McClellan a night off, turned to O’Hara.

He didn’t disappoint.

O’Hara made three saves — none bigger than a 48th-minute stop on Fire forward Chad Barrett’s breakaway — came off his line well and kept the defense organized. All that helped the RailHawks hand the Fire a 1-0 loss in the third round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

“It’s been a long wait,” O’Hara said. “It’s been frustrating, but I had to be ready. I had to train hard all season and wait for it. I’m just glad it came. If I’d have gone the whole season without playing, it would have been a waste of a year. But to finally get to play and have a clean sheet and help the team is what it’s all about.”

O’Hara hasn’t allowed a goal in either of his starts — both against MLS teams — this year. In addition to Sunday’s shutout, he did the same to Chivas USA on May 8, when he had two saves in the RailHawks’ 2-0 win.

“John has been probably the most professional of anybody on this team,” Schweitzer said. “He came in and was thinking he was going to be the starter. When we signed him, we didn’t have anybody. We didn’t know where we were going to find our back-up. We found Chris; he’s been unbelievable. He had a rough go of it [Friday] and we needed to give him a break.

“No one doubts when we put in O’Hara. Nobody sees what he does in practice except for us. He was playing behind a guy that was playing out of his mind. He’s a starter anywhere in this league, and he proved it again tonight.”

Schweitzer vs. Chicago

Scott Schweitzer is now 2-1 against Chicago. In addition to Sunday’s win, Schweitzer was on the Rochester team in 1999 that beat the Fire 1-0 in the third round of the Open Cup. In 2005, his final season as a player, the Fire beat the Rhinos 5-4 on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals.

This time around, though, Schweitzer got to be on the field when his team pulled off the upset.

In ’99, Schweitzer was red carded in the 76th minute for his role in an on-field fracas.

According to archives on Major League Soccer’s Web site: "[Chicago’s] Lubos Kubik loses the ball and Rochester seems to go on a 2-on-0 break, but Kubik grabs a Rhino and then collides with him, and as he is about to be booked with a second yellow card a scuffle ensues between him and Rochester tough guy Scott Schweitzer. Both teams get together and lots of players are in a large pack. Some pushing and shoving and possible punches are thrown. Kubik is sent off for what would have been a second yellow and Schweitzer is red carded for his role in the scuffle."

Man in red

Carolina goalkeeper Chris McClellan debuted a new red jersey for Friday’s match against Montreal. In each of his first 14 starts, he sported a gray shirt.

“It was the first game I had the opportunity to wear it,” McClellan said. “I thought we were going to wear white. I got it a few games ago but I haven’t been able to wear it.”

Shoe switch

In the 58th minute Friday against Montreal, Carolina midfielder Stuart Brightwell stepped off the field and changed his shoes. His normal spikes are split, he said, and his replacement pair won’t arrive until sometime this week. So he borrowed teammate Dario Brose’s for the game.

“When I came out, it was quite sandy, so I borrowed Dario’s Nikes,” Brightwell said. “It felt good, but about five minutes in, the studs starting digging in me blisters. So at halftime, I thought I’d tear these out. The first five minutes, they were killing me. When I came off, I thought, if they score, I’m going to get killed.”

Bang the drum slowly

Forward Connally Edozien was unavailable Friday, so he played cheerleader instead. During the second half, with the game still scoreless, Edozien went to the 204 Depot, home of the RailHawks supporter’s section, and banged on a drum for several minutes.

“I was injured, so I wanted to support my teammates the best I could, Edozien said. “It was the second half, and we were [attacking] that side of the [field]. If I’m not playing, that’s my way to supprt my team.”

Edozien also wore the jersey of fellow forward McColm Cephas throughout the night, a show of support to his teammate who was making his first start of the season.

“He’s had loads of opportunities just like me earlier,” Edozien said. “He just needed one. I was trying to say to him, I’m giving you some of my luck on the field. It’s your opportunity, put one in the back of the net.”

USL vs. MLS

Eight MLS teams entered the Open Cup in the third round, and four of them have been eliminated by USL teams. In addition to Carolina’s win over the Fire, the USL-1’s Charleston Battery beat the Houston Dynamo 1-0. The USL Second Division’s Harrisburg City Islanders and Richmond Kickers beat the L.A. Galaxy and D.C. United, respectively. In all four of those matches, the USL side won 1-0.

“The level in the [USL] is good, good standards,” said Fire coach Juan Carlos Osorio, who has coached in MLS, the English Premier League and Colombia’s Primera A. “In general, throughout the world, [soccer] is a game that is very even nowadays. In every single league around the world, you see one or two teams that dominate the league, but the rest are even.”

USL-1’s Seattle Sounders will play Chivas USA on Wednesday in the final game of the Open Cup’s third round.

Since 1996, when MLS teams entered the Open Cup field, lower division teams have 32 wins against MLS.

Second half drought

Between Open Cup and USL-1 matches, Carolina has scored 21 goals this season. McColm Cephas’ 56th-minute strike Sunday was just the sixth that occurred during the second half.

Next up

The RailHawks (4-5-7, 19 points) will play twice this weekend, at Miami at 7:30 p.m. Friday and at Puerto Rico at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Friday’s meeting will be the first between Miami (6-10-2, 20 points), which joined the league a year ago, and the first-year RailHawks.

Sunday’s match in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, will be Carolina’s first trip to the island, but it’s the second time the two teams have met. The RailHawks and Islanders (5-4-7, 22 points) played to a scoreless draw at SAS Soccer Park May 4.

More supsensions

Midfielder Jonny Steele and defender Chad Dombrowski will sit out the match against Miami due to yellow card accumulation. Dombrowski earned his fifth yellow card of the season in the RailHawks’ 2-2 draw at Montreal July 8. Steele picked up his fith caution of the season against Montreal Friday.

USL rules call for a one-match suspension when a player accumulates five yellow cards. He may wait up to seven days before he must sit out a USL contest. Because the RailHawks did not play a USL match between last Friday and this Friday, both players are ineligible against Miami.