Charlottetowne Hops FC Defeats Burlington United FC 6-1 in Southeast Conference Clash
By Charlottetowne Hops FC
The Charlottetowne Hops played hosts to league newcomers Burlington United FC on Friday night at the CSA OrthoCarolina Sportsplex in Pineville, NC, and proceeded to defeat the visitors 6-1 on goals from six different players.
Charlottetowne wasted very little time in finding their first goal. A long throw from fullback Vuk Martinovic into the box to DJ Faye led to a pass from the attacker to midfielder Tucker Kern, who slotted the ball in the lower right corner past Burlington keeper Ayden Miller in the fourth minute to put the hosts ahead. Six minutes later, a ball into the box from Martinovic got a slight touch from striker Ricardo Ferreira right to the feet of Tyler Schwartz, who smashed it past Miller in the upper right corner of the goal to double Charlottetowne’s lead.
Burlington had a goal disallowed midway through the first half on an offside call, but it was a sign they were growing into the match a little, as their counter-attacking style wasn’t yielding much in the way of results. And just when the visitors might have been gaining a little confidence, the Hops struck again via Ferreira. The Hops earned a corner, which the striker took, only for the ball to fall back to him near the edge of the penalty area, but quite far to the left. Ferreira proceeded to loop it perfectly into the upper right corner of the goal, a strike so pure that even he seemed shocked it worked out. The Hops were flying and went into halftime with a 3-0 lead.
Halftime saw substitutions for both sides, and while Charlottetowne was pushing to add to their lead, it was the visitors who struck first in the second half via substitute Diego Thompson in the 70th minute. Thompson took a nicely worked back heel pass from Arden Tobolski and slotted it past another substitute, Hops goalkeeper Cole Freeman.
But it took Charlottetowne just four minutes to respond, as yet another pair of subs, Maximos Grafakos and Rodrigo Ferreira (Ricardo’s brother), linked up to give the Hops their three-goal cushion back. Grafakos made a nice pass to Rodrigo, who danced around the defender and rocketed it past Miller to make it 4-1 in the 74th minute.
And Charlottetowne wasn’t done yet. Three minutes later, Brady Lloyd joined the goal-scoring party on a beautiful section of play. Kern found Ricardo, who whipped it across to his brother. Rodrigo then found Josh Zawlocki in the box, who promptly saw Lloyd streaking in from the midfield and into the box. The pass was perfect, and Lloyd knocked it into the net in the 77th minute to make it 5-1.
The Hops wrapped up the scoring with an 86th-minute strike from Zawlocki, the recent high school graduate, who pounced on an inch-perfect pass from Grafakos to slide it past Miller and make it 6-1.
Charlottetowne earned their first points of the season, which moves them into sixth place. They now head into a stretch of three road matches in 10 days, including Burlington on May 28, Port City FC on May 31, and 865 Alliance on June 4. Then they return home for a run of three matches, beginning with Greenville United on June 7.
As for Burlington, they’ll host Charlottetowne and then travel to Hickory on May 31 to take on Hickory FC.
Photo Credit: Charlottetowne Hops FC
