Utica City FC’s Comeback Falls Short in 10-7 Loss to Tacoma

January 7, 2024 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) – Utica City FC News Release

Tacoma, WA – Utica City FC went all the way to the Pacific Northwest for the latest kickoff of the season-play started at 10:11 pm EST. Utica went down early and a late comeback effort fell short for the away side as Tacoma ended up victorious by a score of 10-7.

Julian Rodriguez started his first game of the season with Andrew Coughlin and Brian Wilkin sidelined due to illness. The game started off on the wrong foot for Utica as just over a minute in a challenge flag was thrown from the Tacoma bench. The resulting review handed a free kick to Tacoma right outside of the UCFC box, and on the resulting free kick Jamael Cox lifted a ball into the top corner to give the home side a 1-0 lead. Tacoma would then tack on a shorthanded goal at the 2:20 mark with Kyle Rivers finding an open net after the Stars pinched the ball in the Utica defensive half. Three minutes later, Utica would cut the deficit in half as Nilton de Andrade went bar down past Chris Toth in the Tacoma net. The Stars rebounded quickly, with Alex Caceres lifting one past Rodriguez for 3-1. The goalscoring continued as City went bar down again-this time with Steven Fernandez firing a powerful shot that ticked off of the hands of Toth and into the net for 3-2. Rodriguez made a save off of his face, injuring the starting goalkeeper for City and forcing Wilkin into action. Logan Roberts made a goal-line clearance in the closing moments of the first quarter to keep the score at 3-2 heading to the second.

The second quarter saw Rodriguez head back into the Utica net, recovering quickly from the injury scare in the first. It took until the 6:26 mark in the second quarter for a goal to be scored, and it was yet another shorthanded goal for the hosts-this time with Nick Perera calling his own number to slam the ball home. Ninety seconds later, Emmanuel Belliard kept UCFC in it with a tap-in at the back post to make it a 4-3 Tacoma lead. Rodriguez made a triple save ending with the ball making contact with his face again, leading to Wilkin re-entering the game at the 8:10 mark in the second frame. The Stars worked another passing move to unlock the Utica defense, with Cox passing home his second goal of the night at the 10:14 mark. That pushed the score to 5-3 in favor of Tacoma, and the game would head to halftime.

The story of the first half continued-shorthanded goals. This time, however, it was in favor of the away…