The past two weeks have been a blur for Zeiko Lewis, who has hit the ground running at new club Sacramento Republic.

The Bermuda forward joined the club from USL Championship rivals Charleston Battery in December after agreeing to terms of an undisclosed deal.

However, his arrival was delayed owing to what he described as “unforeseen circumstances”, which curtailed his pre-season preparations with the USL Western Conference franchise.

He finally joined up with his new team-mates on March 7 and made his debut five days later, after coming on as a second-half substitute in Sacramento’s season opening 3-1 win over El Paso Locomotive on their home patch at Heart Health Park.

“It was a great experience,” Lewis told The Royal Gazette.

“It’s a new environment, new team, new systems, new coach.

“It’s a lot to take in a short period of time, especially being I had a shorter preseason than most due to unforeseen circumstances.

“But I’m here now and I’m putting in the work. I put in the work in my off season and I’m really excited to get started.”

Expectations are high on the Bermudian, having been named as Charleston’s most valuable player last season.

He was also the club’s leading scorer during the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

It is a challenge Lewis is up for.

“Coach [Mark Briggs] put faith in me to do a job, and I just need to go out there, continue to do it and work hard every day,” he added.

“Growing in confidence, growing in stature and on top of that just continue building on what I have already built.”

Lewis has considerable experience playing in the United States, having been selected seventeenth overall by the New York Red Bulls in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft.

He joined Charleston from Iceland’s Handknattleiksfélag Kópavogs in 2019 and went on to score 19 goals in 73 appearances for the USL Championship Eastern Conference side.

Lewis scored five goals and ten assists, the fourth highest in the league, in 22 appearances in his final season with Charleston.