NY Surf Welcomes Rough Riders to Reinhart Field at SUNY Maritime College
New York Surf Soccer Club (5-2-2, 17 points) will return to United Women’s Soccer (UWS) action on Saturday, hosting the Long Island Rough Riders (5-1-1, 16 points) in their 2017 regular season finale. Kickoff is slated for 2:00 p.m., with the action going down at Reinhart Field on the campus of SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx.
A win and three points for NY Surf is most certainly the mission in this match-up, with the UWS announcing this week that the top two clubs from the East Conference will advance to the postseason and play for the conference championship on Tuesday, July 18. New Jersey Copa FC currently sits in first place in the East Conference with 22 points, but NY Surf is just a single point behind the second-place New England Munity at 18 points. To put themselves in a position to reach the conference championship match on July 18, NY Surf would need to defeat Long Island on Saturday, and New England would need to either lose or draw in their game against the Western New York Flash on Sunday. The Rough Riders will still be in the mix regardless of the result today, as they still have two more matches remaining on their schedule next week.
Additionally, NY Surf is also a legitimate contender to reach the UWS playoffs as the wild card team. The criteria to determine the wild card is based on components such as record, strength of schedule and travel difficulty.
NY Surf enters Saturday’s match on the heels of a huge 5-0 shutout win over the New York Magic last Saturday afternoon. After taking a 1-0 lead into halftime via a Furtuna Velaj to Corinna Ferrante tally in the 5th minute, the NY Surf offense exploded for four goals over an eight-minute span in the second half.
First, Velaj hooked up Erica Murphy in the 72nd minute before Meagen Doyle fed Murphy a second goal just one minute later. Ferrante then scored an unassisted tally in the 75th minute, while Faith Daley put away a solo score in the 80th minute to hang the final 5-0 count.
An official UWS affiliate of National Women’s Soccer League side Sky Blue FC, NY Surf will feature a few amateur players on Saturday who have trained this season with the professional club. Murphy is one of those athletes, while Catrina Atanda, Cassidy Benintente, Kelly Conheeney and Rachel Corboz (younger sister of Sky Blue FC midfielder Daphne Corboz) are expected to be in the NY Surf Starting XI.
Saturday will mark the first-ever meeting between NY Surf and Long Island. Tickets for the match will be available at the entrance into Reinhart Field on the campus of SUNY Maritime College, which is located at 6 Pennyfield Avenue in the Bronx. Adult tickets are $10, while kids 16 and under get into the match for $5. Additionally, any kids wearing a NY Surf jersey will receive free admission into the stadium.
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