District of Columbia Men’s Soccer Settles for 3-3 Tie at Queens

FLUSHING, NY – The University of the District of Columbia men's soccer team led 3-1 with under 25 minutes left to play in regulation, but surrendered two goals in a span of just over one minute and wound up settling for a 3-3 tie against Queens in East Coast Conference action Saturday afternoon.

The Firebirds just missed out on what would have been a pivotal ECC win; instead, they moved to 4-5-2 overall and 1-3-1 in the league. Queens is now 7-2-3 overall and 3-1-1 in the ECC.

Sophomore Bakary Coulibaly (Electrical Engineering – Hyattsville, MD/La Lumiere HS) scored the game's first goal with just 48 seconds remaining in the first half to give the Firebirds a 1-0 lead at intermission. The goal was Coulibaly's team-best fifth of the season, and was assisted by freshman Moussa Traore (Psychology – Silver Spring, MD/John F. Kennedy HS).

Queens answered just a little over five minutes into the second period as Danny Stoker's through ball found the feet of Alexander Schweitzer for the game-tying goal. But six minutes later, junior captain Roque Hernandez (Undecided – Gaithersburg, MD/Northwest HS) buried a free kick from 25 yards out for his first goal of the season to put the Firebirds back in front, 2-1.

In the 66^th minute, the Firebirds struck again as a through ball by Traore found a waiting Byron Brown after it deflected off of freshman Simon Bratke, and Brown finished inside the box to give District of Columbia a 3-1 advantage.

After over nine minutes of little offensive action by either side, Queens' Tyler Iocco fired a shot from the top of the box that deflected off Bratke and made its way into the goal to make it a one-goal game. Iocco then struck again just 1:16 later after some nice passing by the Knights following a play re-start allowed him a clear shot from right in front of the net, and he forced a 3-3 tie with 14:28 left to play in regulation. Neither team could score in that time, and the game went to overtime.

The Firebirds took two corner kicks and Coulibaly and Hernandez each fired shots on goal, but the Knights' Stillianos Fotinos was up to the task, stopping both shots and forcing a second overtime session. Queens' Danny Stoker took the only shot of the second overtime session as neither team scored in the second overtime session either.  

Queens had a slight 14-13 edge in shots, but the Firebirds outnumbered the Knights in quality scoring opportunities as they put eight of their shots on goal compared to just five by Queens. A very physical affair, District of Columbia was whistled for 21 fouls and Queens had 14. Nine yellow cards were handed out as well, with seven being handed out to Knights players.

Next up for District of Columbia is another ECC road game at Mercy on Saturday, October 13^th at 3 p.m.