NEWARK, N.J. (August 15, 2014) – The New York Red Bulls Reserves hosted the Wilmington Hammerheads at Lubetkin Field on the campus of NJIT on Friday night and it was New York’s Marius Obekop who broke the deadlock just minutes before the final whistle.
In the final minute of regulation, Obekop raced onto a through-ball from Ruben Bover and into the box, cut inside past a defender, and hit a low, well-placed shot into the bottom left corner and past Wilmington keeper Brad Stuver. It was the forward’s lone shot of the match.
The Hammerheads, coming off three straight losses, started the match off in impressive fashion with several scoring opportunities. After the visitors enjoyed more possession in the opening 15 minutes, the remainder of the first half was evenly matched. New York’s Bover had two curling efforts just miss, one a free kick and the other a shot from distance.
The Red Bulls Reserves defense buckled down in the second half and allowed just three shots. At the hour mark, Bover received the ball at midfield, dribbled past two defenders and unleashed a through-ball that would be cleared away for a corner. On the resulting set piece, new Red Bulls signing Damien Perrinelle narrowly put his team ahead with a header over the far post.
The Red Bulls had two more close chances late in the match; one when 2014 second-round pick Eric Stevenson tried an audacious 50-yard effort with Stuver way off his line and the other with an 89th minute Bover freekick from the top of the box that had Stuver just parrying it away in time.
With the loss, the Hammerheads move to 6-6-8 but have several games in hand over those around them in the standings. The Red Bulls Reserves next host the Montreal Impact Reserves at Red Bull Training Facility on August 24.
New York Red Bulls Reserves 1, Wilmington Hammerheads FC 0
August 15, 2014
USL Pro
Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium – Newark, NJ
Scoring Summary:
NY: Marius Obekop (Ruben Bover) 90’
Disciplinary Summary:
None
New York Red Bulls Reserves: Ryan Meara (Santiago Castano 69’); Richard Eckersley, Matt Miazga (Henry Martin 83’), Armando (Damien Perrinelle 45’), Kosuke Kimura; Eric Stevenson, Matthew Olosunde (Kyle Zajec 71’), Ruben Bover, Connor Lade (Marcelo Borges 45’); Marius Obekop, Derrick Etienne
Substitutes not used: None
Wilmington Hammerheads: Brad Stuver; Tom Parratt © (Andrae Campbell 63’), Ashani Fairclough, Christian Davidson (Troy Cole 73’), Drew Ruggles; Paul Nicholson, Ross Tomaselli (Steven Miller 45’), Marc Godelman, Brian Ackley, Corben Bone; Cody Arnaux (Sunny Jane 69’)
Substitutes not used: Matt Glaeser, Manu Aparicio, Will Heaney
Referee: Jamie Herrera
Referee’s Assistants: Logan Brown and Bartosz Ciescak
4th Official: Zeno Cho
