Academy 2 - 5 Ichabod Crane

Academy fell for a second time against a very talented Ichabod squad on the Cadets home field Friday afternoon. Academy looked sharp from the start - keeping the ball and attacking for the first few minutes before Ichabod booted it long, when a mistake by the Cadets goalkeeper gave the ball up to Brandon DaCosta alone in the box. That never goes well when dealing with DaCosta, and he tapped it in for an early 1-0 lead. Minutes later the Riders struck again on a nice service from DaCosta and a nice one touch from senior captain Angel Loyola. Academy continued to move the ball well despite the nightmare start. The Cadets showed a lot of resilience despite every Ichabod opportunity finding its way into the back of their net. The Riders went up three when fellow captain Yahir Velasco outworked his defender outside the center of the box and delivered a great ball into the corner of the goal. That's where the half ended with Ichabod up 3-0. Academy looked to show pride and came out hard in the second half, only to have more of the same luck they suffered in the first. An unlucky touch on the back line ended up causing a battle in the corner of Academy's end - and the quick-strike skill of Loyola made it 4-0 early on. Ichabod quickly took advantage of the deflated Academy squad and put in another - this time by sophomore Jordan Hernandez. Give the Cadets a heck of a lot of credit for not giving up after that. They battled to the final whistle - earning two penalty kicks and converting on both. Amos Stack beat three defenders and was in alone on the goaltender when he was tackled hard from behind. He put in the fist PK. Will Hayes put in the second after he was fouled going in alone on the goalie after a beautiful pass from Mike Malatino. The Riders roll on undefeated and will try to go for the Colonial Council title next week.