Against Seattle on Friday at WakeMed Soccer Park, they finally played together and offered a glimpse of their attacking prowess. Coggins scored his first goal as a RailHawk 12 minutes in on an assist from Antoniuk.

But the pairing and the lead didn’t last.

Coggins checked out of the match with a hip flexor injury later in the first half. Seattle equalized in the 45th minute and each team scored once in the second half to end the match in a 2-2 deadlock.

Friday’s draw brought to a close a frantic 13 days that had the RailHawks play six times in three cities. They went on the road for two league games, were home for two league games and hosted USL Second Division and Major League Soccer teams in the U.S. Open Cup. Carolina went 2-2-2 during that stretch. The last two games, a 4-2 extra-time loss to Kansas City in the Open Cup on July 1 and Friday’s tie against Seattle, were especially taxing.

“It’s tough when you think about it,” Antoniuk said. “But a lot of teams have got these rough schedules, so we’ll try not to make any excuses. We’ve got a couple days with some rest coming up, and we’re looking forward to that.”

Carolina coach Scott Schweitzer gave Coggins his first start since the preseason because he felt having the 6-foot-4 striker running alongside the 6-3 Antoniuk would force Seattle’s defense to focus on them and open up the outside for flank midfielders Martin Nuńez and Santiago Fusilier.

In the 12th minute, Antoniuk and Coggins hooked up and did so by coming straight down the middle of the field. Antoniuk’s pass into Coggins at the edge of the penalty box deflected off Seattle defender Michael Rodriguez. That allowed Coggins to spin around and rip a shot to the far post.

Despite languishing on the bench for most of the RailHawks’ first 16 matches, Coggins remained patient and optimistic his chance would come.

“I felt good,” he said. “I know I can do it. I know the coaches know I can do it. We’ve got five good forwards, so I had to be patient. … It’s been tough, but I also know everybody has a role on the team, even the guys that don’t ever play. They make the guys better at practice. I’ve been playing for a while, so I understand how it is.”

Coggins made the most of his first start, but he barely had time to enjoy it. Not long after scoring, he wrenched his hip flexor. In the 32nd minute, he subbed out.

As the half wore on, the RailHawks settled into the comfort of their 1-0 lead, opening the door for Seattle to come back. And the Sounders did so in the 45th minute. RailHawks killer Sebastien Le Toux scored his third goal in five games against Carolina, jumping on a free-kick deflection just before intermission.

The same thing happened against Kansas City. Up 2-0 thanks to goals by Fusilier and Matt Watson, the RailHawks sat back. When Ivan Trujillo scored in the 68th minute to make it 2-1, the RailHawks were shellshocked.

“We were up 2-nil and I guess we kind of kept trying to keep the game. We didn’t really try to score more goals,” Watson said. “We just kind of sat back. … Once they got the first, it almost seemed like it was a matter of time. We were under so much pressure and we couldn’t absorb it for the whole half.”

Four minutes into extra time, Trujillo slotted home the game winner and the RailHawks never had a chance. On Friday, the RailHawks woke up after Kenji Treschuk’s 69th-minute header gave the Sounders a 2-1 lead. They equalized in the 87th minute.

On a corner kick, Carolina’s Steve Curfman sent an out-swinging ball into the box. David Stokes, the 6-foot-4 defender who’s always a target on set pieces around the goal, crashed the box and headed the ball by Sounders goalkeeper Chris Eylander.

“I was just in the right place at the right time, and it went in,” Stokes said. “I’ve been working on finishing in practice.”

Though the RailHawks exited the Open Cup and failed to move up in the USL-1 standings last week, they have every reason to have done the opposite on both fronts had they not been the victim of dubious officiating in the closing minutes of both games.

In the 81st minute against Kansas City, Stokes was whistled for a foul after he nudged Kansas City’s Roger Espinoza as he tried to cut the ball back to his right near the six-yard box. Seconds after the initial contact, the referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot. Wizards forward Claudio Lopez hammered home the PK to even the match 2-2.

The non-call prompted a 411-word diatribe by Schweitzer in his post-match comments that included: “Our boys put it in every day in training, on the road, in games, and then we come here and we hold them accountable. They get fired if they don’t play good. Where is the accountability for the refereeing? That’s all I’m saying. We gave [Kansas City] the game. We lost the game. That we’ll take care of ourselves. But to play that hard and that long and to be — I’m not saying he did it on purpose — but we feel cheated by the refereeing. If I get fined for it, I’ll take that fine because this is getting ridiculous in the league.”

In the 82nd minute Thursday, Seattle defender Zach Scott knocked down a Nuńez shot with his right hand just in front of the Sounder goal. Replays clearly show the ball bouncing off Scott’s hand. No call was made. Schweitzer raced down the sideline toward the linesman, but his protest was fruitless.

Schweitzer wasn’t nearly as outraged postgame as he was two days earlier, in part, because the RailHawks equalized shortly after the no-call and should have scored the game winner in the 90th minute.

In the final minute, Antoniuk carried the ball down the left side and centered to Ryan Solle. Solle’s one-timer from 12 yards forced Eylander to dive right to make the save. The rebound popped out to Connally Edozien, and from inside the six-yard box, Edozien missed the frame entirely as Eylander flew back across the goal mouth.

Before kickoff, Schweitzer told his players the only way they would lose to Seattle was if they beat themselves. How prophetic.

“Terrible marking, silly foul on the first goal. No reason for it,” Schweitzer said. “Terrible marking on the second. And then not finishing the ones we should have. But resilient to come back. We played unbelievable soccer, lost our way for about 20 minutes in the first half where they tied it back up. A mistake by us [to allow Seattle to go up 2-1] and then phenomenal to finish.”

After Thursday, the RailHawks had an eight-day layoff between games, their longest since the first week of June. They’ll play at ninth-place Minnesota (4-7-4) on Friday and at second-place Vancouver (7-4-2) on Sunday, but Antoniuk didn’t want to look that far ahead.

“I’m looking forward to going to sleep tonight and having a nice day off,” he said. “These last two weeks have been pretty brutal for us.”