Rockville, Md. – Real Maryland FC started the second half of their Premier Development League campaign with a 5-0 victory over the Virginia Beach Piranhas on Sunday at Richard Montgomery High School, a fine beginning to a busy stretch that sees the Monarchs play their final seven games of the 2012 season in 24 days.
After Real Maryland won these teams’ first meeting of the season 3-0 in Va.Beach, both teams came at each other as if they had a score to settle. Both the Piranhas and Monarchs were hungry and applied high pressure on both ends early.
The scoring opened in the 29th minute when George Fochive blasted a set-piece rebound off the Piranhas goalkeeper and into the far corner. Less than a minute later, David Neuberth further applied pressure with a breakaway, but was thwarted by Virginia Beach keeper Tyler Benham.
Not to be denied again, Neuberth drilled home a strike off a Monarchs corner kick from Emilio Cornago in the 33rd minute.
Aboubacarim Ndaw sent the two teams into the locker rooms with Real Maryland FC up 3-0 at halftime, putting in a goal on his third try in matter of seconds. Meeting a cross, Ndaw nailed the ball off the crossbar while inside the six-yard box and found himself on the ground with the ball bouncing back to him.
He struck the ball while on the ground and it was saved by the Piranha defense, but it bounced back again to Ndaw’s opposite side. The Monarchs forward spun 180 degrees and drove home the goal with a side volley while lying on the ground.
The second half began with the same intensity of the game’s start. But to steer the game in its final direction, Ndaw got an assist by passing the ball to Alessane Kane, who found the net in the 57th minute.
Real Maryland FC conjured up their fifth and final goal with perhaps the nicest play of the match. Ndaw finished Patrick Pato’s finely chipped cross from 10 yards out while on a full sprint in the 70th minute.
The Monarchs defense recorded its sixth shutout of the season, with Sean Cote in goal recording seven saves while Bush Yormie, Tomi Adewole, Uzi Tayou and Emilio Cornago locked down the back against a high-powered Piranha offense that had scored three goals the night before in a 3-1 win over Fredericksburg.
The Monarchs visit the Fredericksburg Hotspur on Friday night for their first meeting of the 2012 season, and will return home to Richard Montgomery H.S. on Sunday, July 24 at 6 p.m. to welcome the Southern West Virginia King’s Warriors.