Virginia Dream FC Pulls Away Late from FC Frederick

By FC Frederick

FC Frederick fell behind early and ended the match with just nine players, turning what had been a competitive contest into a 6-1 loss to Virginia Dream FC on Wednesday night at St. John’s Catholic Prep.

The victory kept Virginia Dream FC (4-1) in second place in the Mid-Atlantic Conference.  FC Frederick dropped to 2-3-1 and slipped to sixth in the nine-team standings.

Virginia Dream also extended its win streak against FC Frederick to five matches and holds an all-time advantage of 5-0-1.

Zoumana Diarra scored the first of his two goals in the 13th minute for an early Virginia Dream lead.  Ahmed El-Manialawy gave Dream a 2-0 lead in the 28th minute, and Demetrius Shepard-Lewis extended the margin to 3-0 in the 51st minute.  FC Frederick answered three minutes later when Christian Woobay curled a left-footed free kick into the net for his team-leading fourth goal of the season.

Any hopes of a comeback quickly faded.

First, a red card in the 68th minute reduced FC Frederick to 10 players, and the situation worsened in the 81st minute.  Woobay suffered a match-ending injury after FC Frederick had already used all of its substitutions, leaving nine players on the field for the home team for the remainder of the match.  Virginia Dream capitalized on the numerical advantage, scoring on its last three shots. Diarra netted his second goal in the 84th minute, followed by Shepard-Lewis’ second goal in the 90th minute, and Diego Torres-Lopez capped the scoring three minutes into stoppage time.

Before Virginia Dream turned the game into a rout, the Mid-Atlantic defending regular season champ only held a 6-5 advantage in shots in the first half. In the second half, Virginia Dream took control and recorded a 10-1 shot advantage.

FC Frederick keeper Brendan Kane had four saves on the night.

Both teams return to action Saturday at 7:00 pm Virginia Dream travels to Richmond, VA to take on Grove United at Monacan High School.  FC Frederick plays host to Hub City FC at St. John’s Catholic Prep.

Photo Credit: Christian Shealer/FC Frederick