CINCINNATI, OH --- Scoring two late penalty kicks, Rochester moved past FC Cincinnati for the 3-2 victory July 29 at Nippert Stadium. The loss snapped a three-game win streak in USL contests for FCC, who suffered their first home loss since a 2-0 defeat against Orlando City B May 13.
Rochester’s Jochen Graf, and FCC’s Jimmy McLaughlin each scored goals to knot the score to end the first half. Rochester’s Wal Fall converted two penalty kicks late in the second half, while Danni Konig followed suit by adding a penalty kick of his own.
“We focus on ourselves. We have to focus on what we can control, which is our performance. We don’t control the referees or the opposition. Did we play well for 90 minutes? No, we didn’t start the game the way that we needed to,” Head Coach Alan Koch said post-game. “In this league, you have to play a full 90 from the beginning of the game to set yourself up for success. One loss may humble us, but we’ve had so much success and this loss does not take any of that away.”
Rochester opened the scoring early in the 12th minute by way of a mishandled ball by Justin Hoyte. Hoyte defended the initial play on goal but, the ball rebounded directly to Graf who fired a shot that deflected off the near post and into the goal.
Rising to the challenge of being down 0-1, FCC stormed back and evened the score in the 29th minute. Breaking up the field, Kenney Walker sailed a long pass to McLaughlin. Catching the Rochester keeper and defensive line playing too far forward, McLaughlin laid in the slow rolling shot for his third goal of the season.
In the 34th minute, FCC had a near goal opportunity when Andrew Wiedeman’s short pass found Corben Bone, who had a clear path to the goal. Bone took a short dribble and fired a shot to the near side of the goal but Tomas Gomez of Rochester went airborne and made the diving save to keep the match at one apiece.
FCC’s Djiby received his second yellow card just before the midway break, resulting in FCC playing a man down for the remainder of the contest.
“I felt as though I was respected tonight as the captain, as the officials initiated conversation with me. We put ourselves in a bad situation. When you’re playing with a yellow, you have to be so careful. In those situations, you have to play smarter,” said captain Austin Berry post-game. “I still think we gave ourselves a chance to stay in the game and get something out of it. There were unfortunate plays down the end, but games like this help us to come out on fire in the next game.”
Rochester’s Fall added his first penalty kick in the 78th minute of play. The PK resulted from a hard Weideman foul inside the box. Fall put the ball away in the bottom right corner of the goal, as Hildebrandt dove left. Fall added his second goal of the match in the 82nd minute, again on a penalty kick as Kevin Schindler was called for the hand-ball.
König took a penalty kick for FCC in the 86th minute as Rochester was called handball. König placed the ball in the top right corner of the goal, as Gomez dove left. The goal was König’s seventh on the season but FCC ran out of time to complete a comeback.
The match was marked by its physical play with the two teams combining for 35 fouls.
FCC will be back on the pitch Aug. 2 when they travel to Miami FC for their rescheduled quarter-final match of the U.S. Open Cup. Match play will begin at 7:30 p.m.
STARTING LINEUPS:
FCC: Mitch Hildebrandt, Justin Hoyte, Austin Berry, Harrison Delbridge, Matt Bahner, Josu, Corben Bone, Kenney Walker, Djiby, Andrew Wiedeman, Jimmy McLaughlin
Rochester: Tomas Gomez, Joe Farrell, Felix Ryan, Bradley Kamdem Fewo, Jordan Dover, Wal Fall, Ryan James, Sofiane Tergou, Mike Garzi, Kenardo Forbes, Jochen Graf
GOAL SUMMARY:
Rochester: 12’ - Jochen Graf
FCC: 29’ - Jimmy McLaughlin (Kenny Walker)
Rochester: 78’ - Wal Fall (PK)
Rochester: 82’ - Wal Fall (PK)
FCC: 86’ - Danni Konig (PK)
