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

ARLINGTON, VA – The 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.

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.

Angerer notched his team-best 4^th 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.

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

Less than two minutes later, Angerer nearly had his 5^th 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 4^th goal of the day, and his 2^nd of the season.

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.

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 blatsed a shot from just outside the 18 to put the Knights on the board in the 59^th minute, and later Glen Reid finished a cross from Isaiah Kossinne in the 70^th minute.

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.

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