DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Oct. 31, 2017) – Despite goals from sophomores Maximiliano Rebolledo-Camus (Santiago, Chile/Saint George's College) and Manuel Achondo (Santiago, Chile/Colegio Verbo Divino), the No. 2 seeded Mercy College men's soccer team dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to No. 3 seeded University of the District of Columbia in an ECC Men's Soccer Championship Semifinal on Tuesday afternoon at Mercy Field.
The Mavericks (13-5) see their season come to an end with their most wins since 1998 and first ECC Championship appearance since 2013. The Firebirds (14-5) will take on No. 1 seed LIU Post on Friday in the Championship Game at LIU Post.
Rebolledo-Camus recorded his team-leading eighth goal of the season, while Achondo added his second tally of the season. Senior Kwantarian Van der Lara (Stockholm, Sweden/Marshalltown CC) made six saves in taking the loss.
UDC received two goals from Raphael Pacano and a goal from Jason Mayorga. Joao Brusamolin made one save to earn the win.
The opening half saw the Mavericks come out firing looking to get on the board first, but were unable to as a Firebird defender stopped a Jose Carvajal (Levittown, N.Y./Island Trees) shot in the 6th minute. It remained 0-0 until the 30th minute when Pacano received a cross from the left side from Gabriel Torres and fired the ball into the lower right corner to put the guests up 1-0. UDC went into halftime up 1-0 with shots tied at 8-8.
Van der Lara made three saves to open up the second half before the Firebirds tacked on a second goal to make it 2-0 in the 59th minute. Pacano finished off a rebound on a shot taken by Mayorga following a Mercy foul outside the box.
The Mavericks looked to be on the verge of ending their season, but they continued to fight in front of an energetic home crowd. Rebolledo-Camus got Mercy on the board in the 69th minute when he fired a shot over the goalkeeper's head from outside the box that cut the UDC lead to 2-1.
Mercy continued to battle and following a UDC handball in the box with three seconds left in regulation, Achondo scored the game-tying on a penalty kick to make it 2-2. The two teams would head to overtime with the momentum on the Mavericks side.
The Mavericks recorded the first two shots of the overtime period, but the Firebirds would find the game-winning goal in the 98th minute when Kelvin Hererra fed a cross to Mayorga. Mayorba fired the ball into the upper right portion of the goal to give UDC the 3-2 overtime victory.
Shots were tied at 18-18 on the day, while Mercy held a 6-3 edge in corner kicks.
