VINI DANTAS HAT-TRICK BOOSTS BLAST PAST UTICA 6-3

Baltimore, MD – Utica City FC jumped out to a 1-0 lead over the Baltimore Blast, but ultimately fell 6-3 on Friday night. They will return home with the playoffs still in reach to battle Florida on Sunday.

In the first quarter, Utica City FC got it going. They potted the first goal of the game two minutes and thirteen seconds in as Joey Tavernese scored off an assist from Logan Roberts. They carried that lead for the next 12 minutes until Juan Pereira evened the score.

Neither team would score for the remainder of the first half.

In the second half, Baltimore kicked it off with 4 unanswered goals. Lucas Roque got the first, and then Vinicius Dantas would score a hat trick consecutively to give them a 5-1 lead.

UCFC stopped the bleeding when Moises Gonzalez buried a goal off a feed from Nate Bourdeau. Gonzalez was returning from an injury for the first time in two weeks. Lucas Roque got one more for Baltimore at 9:14 of the 4^th to make it 6-2 game.

Before time expired, Jake Schindler made it 6-3 with his first goal of the year. Utica City fell to 7-14 with the loss, but returns home Sunday for a big regular season game. They host the Florida Tropics at 2 P.M.  Tickets are still available at uticacityfc.com/tickets