Valeo FC Defeats Cedar Stars FC 4-3
By Carter Hochman/Valeo FC
It was a very hot and humid 7:00 pm kickoff in Newton, Massachusetts when Cedar Stars FC made the trip up from New York to take on Valeo FC for the second time this season. Valeo FC defeated Cedar Stars 5-0 at Faller Field in Middletown, NY in the first matchup.
Once the game kicked off, you could tell Cedar Stars didn’t forget that game. Coming out on a very strong note, Gunnar Studenhofft took advantage of a misplaced Valeo pass and put one past goalkeeper Zach Rowell to give Cedars Stars a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute.
Valeo would have a multitude of golden opportunities littered throughout the first half, but Cedar Stars goalkeeper Daniel DiMarco would make a plethora of great key saves to keep it scoreless.
Studenhofft was not finished though. A perfect ball would be played in from the edge of the left side of the 18-yard box, finding his head and ending up in the back of the net. This would give Cedar Stars the 2-0 lead, and the score would be unchanged going into halftime.
But that’s not nearly where the fireworks would end.
16 seconds into the second half, Valeo’s Brian Nsang would find himself with the ball at his feet just outside the six-yard box and would blast one past DiMarco to make it 2-1.
Studenhofft still had something to say. 11 minutes later he would put another one by Zach Rowell to make it a hat trick, giving Cedar Stars a 3-1 lead.
If you thought the game was over at that point, you might be the 2016 Golden State Warriors who also had a 3-1 lead. In the 70th minute, Valeo’s Jamar Campion-Hinds would be sent a long through ball down the right-hand channel. He would cross it perfectly into the box, finding the right foot of Matthew Bell. Then Bell volleyed it perfectly into the back of the net, making it 3-2.
Three minutes later, it would be Bell again, but this time it would come after beating three Cedar Stars defenders on the dribble and bending one around DiMarco. This would bring the score to 3-3 still with 17 minutes remaining.
In the 85th minute, a ball would be sent into the Cedar Stars’ box that would land perfectly on the head of Valeo’s Colin Milliken and would be initially saved by DiMarco. The rebound would fall right back to Milliken’s foot where he would bury it into the back of the net, making it 4-3. The comeback was complete, and that is how the match would finish.
Valeo FC are set to face Hartford City on Saturday, July 2nd in Hartford, Connecticut at 7:00 pm.
Photo Credit: Ben Reimann/Valeo FC
