#6 MVCC Men's Soccer Falls to Monroe Tribunes, 4-1, in Contentious Road Match

Rochester, NY — The #6 nationally ranked Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) Men's Soccer team suffered a tough road defeat on Wednesday afternoon, falling 4-1 to the Monroe Community College Tribunes in a physical Region III clash that turned on a few critical moments.

The Hawks started strong and struck first, but a controversial tying goal and a second-half red card shifted momentum firmly in Monroe's favor as MVCC was forced to play down a man for the final 40 minutes.

MVCC opened the scoring in the 7th minute, when Francesco Tagliavini threaded a brilliant pass through Monroe's back line to Mario Camacho, who took a touch and buried his shot past the keeper for a 1-0 lead. Just four minutes later, Monroe responded with a goal that would change the complexion of the match. In the 11th minute, a Tribune attacker obstructed the MVCC's goalkeeper during a contested ball in the six-yard box in which the ball fell into the back of the net to tie the game 1-1.

The second half started with an early goal to give the Tribunes a 2-1 lead. The game's pivotal moment arrived in the 50th minute. Following a Hawks clearance, an off-the-ball incident occurred inside MVCC's penalty area. After a discussion between the officials, a straight red card was issued to an MVCC player. Since the infraction occurred in the box, Monroe was awarded a penalty kick, which they converted to take a 3-1 lead. Monroe capitalized on their advantage, sealing the match with a final goal in the closing minutes to make it 4-1.

Despite the loss, Coach DiMaggio remained optimistic about the team's level of play before the red card.

"I thought we played some of our best soccer today prior to the red card," said DiMaggio. "Their first goal deflated us a bit, but we need to respond to adversity better. There were a lot of positive takeaways prior to the red card."

This is the first time the Tribunes beat the Hawks in the last 6 matches. The Hawks will look to bounce back quickly as they travel to Plattsburgh, NY to take on Clinton Community College this Saturday at 6:00 PM.