Saturday saw Shavar Thomas and CT United FC return to action as they traveled down to Joe Davis Stadium in Huntsville, Alabama, to take on Huntsville City SC.
Thomas made two changes to the lineup that snapped a six-game unbeaten run with a 3-1 win over Red Bull New York II. Gunther Rankenberg made his fourth consecutive start in goal behind the backline of Andre Applewhaite, Lukas Kamrath, Jahvar Stephenson, and Rickson van Hees. Dylan Lacey, Robbie Mora, and Alex Monis formed the midfield three behind the attacking trio of Barnabás Tanyi, Daniel D’Ippolito, and Cauã Paixão.
After a poor back pass, Leo Christiano forced Will Mackay to race off his line and out of the box and attempted to boot the ball downfield. Instead, Mackay’s attempt ricocheted off the back of Monis and headed goalward. After bouncing off the left goal post, Monis turned on the jets and raced past Mackay to tap the loose ball in to net his team-leading fourth goal, and gave CT the early 1-0 lead.
Applewhaite became the first player to enter the referee’s book in the 19th minute after receiving a yellow card following his foul on Julian Gaines. Huntsville midfielder Moisés Véliz entered the book with a yellow shortly after in the 21st minute following his sweeping challenge from behind on Paixão.
The yellows stayed flowing as Dylan Lacey entered the book in the 27th minute following his challenge from behind on Misei Yoshizawa. The 27th minute also saw Mora receive a yellow card for his foul on Aiden Jarvis.
Rankenberg came up big in the 37th minute as Xavier Aguilar executed a pinpoint accurate ball through the CT defense that fell into the path of a darting Yoshizawa, who got on the ball and found himself one-on-one with the keeper. Yoshizawa attempted to find the bottom-left corner, but Rankenberg stuck his hand out to deflect the ball away from danger.
After some good chances, Huntsville capitalized in the 44th minute when Malachi Molina had the ball on the left flank and lobbed a curling ball into the box that was met by a leaping Maximus Ekk. Ekk had a wide open look at the net and headed the ball past a diving Rankenberg and in to level the match just before halftime.
Paixão came close to regaining the lead for CT in the 54th minute when he got on the end of a corner kick and looked to find the upper half of the goal. Unfortunately, Paixão put a hair too much onto the shot as it reverberated off the crossbar and bounced away from danger.
Another Huntsville mistake led to success for CT United. It all began with Jahvar Stephenson lobbing a ball up the right flank. Leo Cristiano stuck a foot out in an attempt to intercept the long ball, but whiffed on it as the ball fell to Monis, who advanced the ball forward before slotting it centrally past an advancing Mackay and to the feet of D’Ippolito, who tapped the ball into the back of the net to notch his first professional goal and gave CT the 2-1 lead.
A deflected ball spelled disaster for CT in the 78th minute, as a ball sent centrally deflected off Lukas Kamrath and into the air, as Aiden Jarvis got under it and headed it to Malachi Molina. Molina volleyed the bouncing header to the left side of the goal and in to level the match at two apiece.
Connecticut’s first changes of the night came in the 80th minute as Laurie Goddard and Academy prospects Jeremy Medranda and Niko Koloniaris replaced Paixão, D’Ippolito, and van Hees. CT’s final change came in the seventh minute of stoppage time as Hivan Kouonang replaced Mora.
90 minutes was not enough time to separate these two sides, as both teams took home a point following a 1-1 draw in regulation and looked to walk away with a second with victory in the penalty shootout.
Andre Applewhaite stepped to the spot first for CT and got the shootout started with a left-footed shot down the middle and in. Angel Iniguez looked to level the shootout with a left-footed shot to the right side of the net, but Rankenberg read it as he swatted it away.
Monis stepped to the spot with the chance to seal the extra point for CT and did so with a right-footed shot down the middle and in to seal the 3-0 shootout victory. CT United will look to keep its momentum going when the club returns to action on Saturday, June 6, to take on Columbus Crew 2 at 6:00 PM ET.
