HARTFORD CITY FALL SHORT IN A MIDWEEK TILT AT VALEO FC

Worcester, Mass. – In a tightly contested affair on Wednesday night, Hartford City FC (3-2-0, 9 points) came out on the wrong end of a 1-0 decision against Valeo FC (1-3-1, 4 points) at General Foley Stadium.

While the Colts maintained their second-place spot in the 2023 NPSL North Atlantic Conference standings despite the loss, Wednesday’s defeat was the second straight match that the club had dropped points after falling to Kingston Stockade FC 3-0 last Saturday.

It was a cagey first quarter of an hour, with the best chance from the two teams during this stretch came from Valeo’s Gabriel Padilla, as his strike from outside the box whistled by the near post in the 16^th minute. Hartford City thought they had opened the scoring in the 19^th minute when Griffin Tomas’ free kick from the right flank was headed home by Nick Hupe before he collided into Valeo’s goalie Marvyn Dorchin, but the referee whistled for a foul on the HCFC defender and negated the goal.

Those were the only two clear-cut scoring chances for either team during the first half but coming out of the halftime break, the hosts only needed a few minutes to break the deadlock. Valeo defender Abdul Barrie drilled a long ball from inside his own defensive third towards Padilla, who was able to beat a HCFC defender to the spot and then rounded Colts’ goalie Jamis Fite and slotted it away for the 1-0 lead.

Hartford City nearly leveled proceedings in the 59^th minute when Fite found Evan Southern down the left, who then played Christian Dionne in with a lovely through ball but his quick snap-shot was saved by the feet of Dorchin. The Colts’ journey to try and even the score took a turn for the worst three minutes after when Jake Williams saw his second yellow card after a late tackle, reducing HCFC to ten men.

Southern, after assisting on a pair of goals in the first meeting between the squads back on May 24^th, hit a well-struck free kick from 25 yards out in the 67^th minute, only to see Dorchin slide over to his near post to make the save. Moments later, Valeo nearly doubled their lead from a long-distance strike that just sailed over the crossbar.

HCFC were reduced to nine men in the 68^th minute when Hupe was sent off for a straight red card when Valeo had a two on one break and the Colts defender fouled a man right outside the penalty box. Despite playing the last 20-plus minutes of the match down two players, Hartford City kept pressing for the equalizer and nearly got it in the 80^th minute when Southern drove around the back line and was in on goal, only once again to be denied by Dorchin from point blank range. But that was the closest Hartford City would come to scoring for the remainder of the match.

The two teams will meet for the third and final time this season on Sunday, June 11^th at Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford. Kickoff for that match is at 2pm, with tickets now available by searching Hartford City FC on Soccerstub.com. Sunday’s match will also be streamed on ElevenSports.com.

June 9 at 6:42 pm