LEESBURG, Va. – Things could not have started better for the Roberts Wesleyan University men's soccer team on Wednesday as the fifth-seeded Redhawks scored twice to take a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of their East Coast Conference Championship first-round match against No. 4 University of the District of Columbia.
Unfortunately for Roberts, the host Firebirds evened the match late in the first half and scored the only goal of the second to earn a 3-2 victory over the Redhawks (5-7-4).
UDC tallied the eventual winner just over five minutes into the second half when a wind-aided free kick deflected in front of the goal and found its way in. Roberts had chances to tie the game in the second half, but was unable to secure a third goal.
"The game kind of opened up in the final 15 minutes and we had some guys make some runs, but we just couldn't finish the job," Roberts coach Scott Reber said.
Roberts opened the scoring in the fifth minute when sophomore Luke Hanes collected a turnover at the top of the box and launched a clean strike into the netting on the far side for his third goal of the season.
The Redhawks doubled their lead at the 9:40 mark when senior Tamas Nagy took a feed from junior Toby Balaam and sent a 20-yard shot home for his 12^th goal of the season.
Axel Gamez converted a penalty kick in the 20^th minute and scored again in the 40^th minute to tie the game for UDC.
Junior Caleb DaSilva made a career-high 13 saves for the Redhawks.
"We've made a lot of progress with a lot of new faces this season," Reber said. "Coming into the season, the goal was to make postseason. We were able to do that but unfortunately luck was not on our side today. Hopefully, we can take these experiences, learn from them and build for the future."
UDC advances to play top-seeded Saint Thomas Aquinas College in the semifinals on Saturday.