WASHINGTON – The Slippery Rock University men's soccer team fell on the road in overtime to the University of the District of Columbia, 3-2, Wednesday afternoon.
With the loss, The Rock's record falls to 2-1-2 overall this season while UDC earns its first win to improve to 1-4-0 overall. Wednesday's game marked the third overtime contest of the season for SRU.
Slippery Rock was lead on offense by
Alejandro Fernandez, who scored one goal and assisted on another. The goal was Fernandez's second of the season.
Luke Gildea also scored his second goal of the year while placing a match-best three shots on goal.
Brian McCarthy,
Arturo Pla Hernandis and
Ramses Minaya all placed shots on goal as well to round out The Rock's top performers.
Goalkeeper
Hossam Aly faced seven shots while making four saves and allowing two goals during the match.
UDC came out firing in the first half when Michael Egbame and Ignacio Pericet scored goals in the fifth and sixth minute of the match on the Firebirds' first two shots.
SRU's defense then settled in, not allowing another goal for the remainder of the first half and only allowing UDC to fire one additional shot heading into the break.
SRU struck offensively eight minutes into the second half when McCarthy sent a corner kick into Fernandez, who beat UDC goalkeeper Javier Abadia Torres to cut Slippery Rock's deficit to 2-1 at 52:29.
Fernandez then facilitated the game-tying goal as he assisted on Gildea's score in the 70th minute to pull The Rock even with the Firebirds. SRU did not record another shot in regulation while Aly made a pair of saves to send the game into overtime.
However, UDC would be awarded a penalty kick eight minutes into the first overtime period, leading to Vitor Gomes sneaking a shot past Aly to secure the golden goal and the win.
For the game, Slippery Rock held advantages over the FIrebirds in shots on goal (8-7) and corner kicks (3-2) while UDC edged The Rock in total shots (10-8).
Slippery Rock returns home to face Lock Haven University 4 p.m. Sept. 22 at James Egli Field.
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