UTICA CITY BATTLES FLORIDA AGAIN

QUICK LOOK: Utica City FC (2-3) heads to Florida off of two straight wins as the calendar flips to 2022. They meet the Tropics (4-1) who remain at the top of the East Division. They also hold the second best goal differential in the MASL at +8. Florida is led by Zach Reget with 7 points in his 4 games. Hugo Silva minds the net for the Tropics, with a 4.35 GAA and .733 SV% in his four starts.

LAST SUNDAY: For their first game of 2022, Utica City FC traveled to play the Florida Tropics. Florida jumped out to an early lead and cruised to a 10-3 win. Florida’s Bruno Henrique got the scoring started when he capitalized on a turnover in Utica City’s defensive third and made it 1-0. Tic-tac-toe passing from Patrick Thompson to Moises Gonzalez to Joey Tavernese led to a back post tap in goal and UCFC tied the game at 1. Florida would go on a 5-1 run from there. The Tropics struck again when Ricardo Carvalho received the ball off the wall and buried it to make it 2-1. They doubled their lead when Taylor Walter Bond dashed to the middle of the field and found the back of the net. Florida led 3-1 at the end of the first.

Florida would score three unanswered to start the third. First, Victor Parrerias scored on a penalty to make it 4-1. Carvalho would add his second of the game for Florida’s fifth. Drew Ruggles tallied another to make it 5-1. Nate Bourdeau stopped the Florida onslaught with a rocket shot to the top right corner of the cage. Florida led 6-2 at the half. The second half started with tallies from each side. Ben Ramin got one for Utica City, but Carvalho answered with his third of the day to make it 7-3 Florida. In the fourth, the Tropics added three. Carvalho, Walter Bond and Drew Ruggles poured it on to seal a 10-3 win for Florida.

Utica City fell to 2-3 on the season with the loss. UCFC was outshot 25-17.