NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The Monroe Mustangs women’s soccer team won their third consecutive Region championship on Friday afternoon, defeating ASA, 2-1 on a pair of goals by Brazilian sophomore Ana Carol Rodrigues. The #3-ranked Mustangs are now 13-1 on the season, but more importantly, they advance to the District E tournament which will be played in Region 19 the weekend of November 8 -9.
“The result came because all game long we were the better team,” coach Jonathan Garbar said. “They had only one shot on goal. Maybe we could have scored another eight or nine goals, but besides that it was the perfect game for us. The energy was great, the attitude was great.”
Rodrigues was a force all game, requiring extra attention from the Avengers defenders. She led all players with six shots overall and she connected on her two shots on goal. The first came on a penalty kick in the 19th-minute and the second was in the 32nd=minute on an assist from captain sophomore Melanie Formosa.
Rodrigues leads Monroe with 16 goals and 9 assists.
ASA scored their goal in the 54th-minute and while it energized their squad, the Mustangs didn’t crack and continued their spirited play.
“I loved the way the adversity that we saw, when they hit that one goal, they were shifting any player in any possible position, anything to break us down and nothing was able to break us down,” the coach said. “We continued to create more and more opportunities.”
“When they scored on us everything was still positive, nothing was negative,” said Formosa. “At that moment, that’s what we needed.”
Monroe had defeated ASA 2-0 at the end of September, which made their second meeting of the year over their one Region rival the Region-clincher. Last year Monroe won the District championship and played in the national tournament.
“We can come back on our field on Monday for training and continue our journey to do what we said we were going to do, which is be the best team in the country,” Coach Garbar said to his team after the game. “Be proud of yourselves and be proud of your teammates. You’ve earned it.”