Call it a Comeback! Firebirds Overcome Early Deficit to Defeat Roberts Wesleyan and Advance to the ECC Championship Semi-Final

LEESBURG, Va- the #4 seeded University of the District of Columbia's men's soccer team came back from an early 0-2 deficit to defeat the #5 seeded Roberts Wesleyan 3-2, in the first round of the ECC Men's Soccer Championship. The Firebirds improve to 6-6-6 on the season and will advance to the Semi-final game on Saturday, where they will face off against the top seeded St Thomas Aquinas College. The Redhawks fell to 5-7-4 to conclude their season.

Axel Gamez scored two of the Firebirds three goals and Eduardo Bugay was awarded the game-winning goal. Sergio Becerra also made seven saves on the day.

The Redhawks came out blazing scoring the first two goals of the day within the opening ten minutes of play, but the Firebirds rallied back to score the next three goals, which went unanswered.

Roughly nine minutes after Tamas Nagy scored RWU's second goal, UDC's leading scorer, Gamez, was fouled in the penalty box. Gamez was able to get the Firebirds on the board after netting his penalty shot, and then went on to score the equalizer, with the assist from Diego Meza- Baez in the 39th minute. 

The deciding goal of the game came in the 50th minute, after a free kick from Bugay at about 40 yards out, was booted into the box and deflected off of a Redhawks defender and over the goalie.

The Firebirds dominated posession the next 40 minutes of play, out shooting the Redhawks 16-9, but was unable to land one in the back of the net. Becerra made five saves to hold the visitors scoreless, securing UDC's 3-2 win.

UDC had the edge in shots taken 25-20, and the advantage in corner kicks 10-2. The Redhawks goalkeeper, Caleb DaSilva also made a game-high 13 saves. 

This marks the Firebirds second ever play-off win, the first came back in 2017, where the #3 seeded Firebirds upsetted the #2 seeded Mercy University in the Semi-final to advance to the Championship game.

Next up: UDC (6-6-6, 3-1-4 ECC) will head to Sparkhill, N.Y. on Saturday to face off against St Thomas Aquinas College. The match is slated to begin at noon. More details to come.