Men's Soccer: UDC 4 Queens (NY) 2

Flavio Macedo (#12) clamps down on Isaiah Kossinne

From our friends at UDC Athletics...

Firebirds Erupt for Four First Half Goals; Defeat Queens, 4-2 in ECC Opener

The UDC Firebirds erupted for four first half goals and then cruised to a 4-2 victory over Queens in their East Coast Conference season opener Wednesday afternoon at Long Bridge Park.

Four different Firebirds tallied goals, including sophomore forward Felix Angerer (Business Administration - Bayreuth, Germany/Graj Minster Gymnasium Bayreuth), sophomore midfielder Nenad Smiljanic (Health Education - Barnsley, England/Barnsley College), junior forward Moussa Traore (Journalism - Silver Spring, MD/John F. Kennedy HS) and sophomore midfielder Flavio De Sousa Macedo (Electrical Engineering - Woodbridge, VA/Woodbridge Senior HS). All four of those goals came within the first 27 minutes of game action.

Nenad Smiljanic (#10) slams home his second goal of the season

UDC, ranked No. 7 in the East Region entering the week, improved to 3-1-1 overall and 1-0 in the ECC. The Firebirds evened the all-time series with Queens since becoming members of the ECC, earning their first win in three meetings vs. the Knights to make the all-time series record, 1-1-1. Queens fell to 0-3 overall this season and 0-1 in league play.

Moussa Traore (#7) puts UDC up 3-0 at 25:01 of the 1st half

Angerer notched his team-best 4th goal of the season just before the eight-minute mark, as he finished off some pretty passing by Smiljanic and Traore inside the 18. Smiljanic then scored his own goal on a direct kick from just outside the box - lifting a shot over a wall of defenders for the unassisted goal.

Flavio Macedo (#12) makes it 4-0 less than two minutes later

Later, in the 26th minute of the first half, Traore scored his 2nd goal of the season on an open net just in front of the goal. Sophomore forward Sam Rowden (Psychology - Lincoln, England/Saint Peter Saint Paul Catholic Secondary School) and Smiljanic were both credited with assists.

Felix Angerer (#9) was a one-man wrecking crew (1G, 1A)

Less than two minutes later, Angerer nearly had his 5th goal of the season when he rocketed a shot from 30 yards out, but it clanged off the right post. The rebound, however, bounced right to Macedo, who put it in for the Firebirds 4th goal of the day, and his 2nd of the season.

It's hard to beat this view of above

UDC out-shot Queens 14-5 in the first half, as Queens managed only one shot on goal the entire first 45 minutes. The Firebirds led 4-0 at the break.

Frosh Jim Alvarado (#17) battles for position

Queens went on to out-shoot UDC 10-4 and double the Firebirds up in corner kicks, 4-2 en-route to outscoring UDC 2-0 in the second half. Paul Sandoval blasted a shot from just outside the 18 to put the Knights on the board in the 59th minute, and later Glen Reid finished a cross from Isaiah Kossinne in the 70th minute.

Louis Connor (#1) improved to 3-1-1 with another stellar turn in goal

The Knights nearly added a third goal near the 80-minute mark when Reid had dribbled past UDC goalkeeper, Louis Connor (Elementary Education - Birmingham, England/Arthur Terry School), but junior midfielder Elio Hernandez (Elementary Education - Germantown, MD/Northwest HS) made a terrific defensive play to block Reid's shot right in front of the goal.

Junior midfielder Elio Hernandez (#8)

Next up, UDC will visit Millersville, of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, on Saturday, September 20th at 12 p.m.

Great defense by Max Coveney (#5) and Diego Alvarado (#16)

Click here for yesterday's box score.