Sunday saw Shavar Thomas and CT United FC return to the road as the club looked to bounce back after suffering a 3-1 loss to Columbus Crew 2 inside UConn’s Morrone Stadium in the club’s inaugural home opener on April 11th.

Thomas made four changes from the lineup that suffered defeat to Crew 2. Anthony Ramos started in goal behind a back three of Lukas Kamrath, Richard Hauth, and Reyniel Perdomo. Robbie Mora, Rickson van Hees, and Ernesto Gómez were joined in the midfield by a debuting Academy prospect in Jeremy Medranda. Alex Monis and Ibrahim Kasule flanked Laurie Goddard to form the attacking trio up top.

Just as it looked like this game would remain scoreless following the opening 45 minutes, Goddard and CT United FC flipped the script in the 45th minute. It started with Robbie Mora forcing the turnover deep in New York’s defensive end as he ran toward the goalline before slotting the ball centrally to Goddard, who one-timed the ball past Macland Learned and in to give CT United FC the 1-0 lead heading into halftime.

Despite the strong end to the first half, things got off to a rough start for CT United in the second half as the 47th minute as Arnau Farnós danced into the left side of the box before slotting the ball centrally to Sebastiano Musu, who one-timed the ball past Ramos to snap New York’s 311-minute scoreless drought.

Connecticut’s night got worse in the 68th minute after a quick build-up from New York led to Farnós slotting the ball forward to Elhadji Samb. He caught Ramos off his line and capitalized by rocketing a ball goalward and in to give NYCFC II a 2-1 lead.

Things went from bad to worse in the 77th minute as Mora was issued a second yellow card following his foul on Peter Molinari, which bumped CT United FC down a man for the remainder of the match. It got a little better in the 80th minute as New York lost its man advantage as Elhadji Samb received his second yellow of the day following a foul on Reyniel Perdomo.

Despite taking a lead into halftime, it all fell apart in the second half for Connecticut, who suffered a second consecutive defeat following a 2-1 loss to NYCFC II. CT United FC will look to snap a two-game skid on May 3 when they return to Morrone Stadium to host regional rival New England Revolution II.