Oaklyn United overcomes early red, ties Philadelphia SC 1-1 with late goal

A fifth minute straight red card is never an ideal way to start a match but Oaklyn United found themselves in that position after a straight red was shown to Vincent Guzzo after a hair pull.

Moments after going down to 10 men, the situation nearly went from bad to worse with some chances in the box but after Oaklyn goalkeeper Brady Hochman and company weathered the storm and settled in it started to look like dropping all three points night be the likely outcome. Trying to take advantage of being a man up, Philadelphia SC forced the issue but looked vulnerable at times on the counter. Pedro Barbosa finally opened the scoring in the 37th minute but even down a man an Oaklyn attack with Sean Fatiga up top was still a threat.

Needing a second goal to secure the points, Philadelphia’s inability to find another final ball left the door open to what would eventually transpire: an 83rd equalizer from Adam Sternberger.

The goal for the hosts was a critical one, snatching a point from a game where they were forced to play mostly with 10 men. Though WC Predators will be tough to catch, the draw puts Oaklyn United into third place just five points behind second place Alloy SC and perhaps more importantly extended their top four lead to 8 points over fifth place Philadelphia SC, which may look back at Sunday’s match at Rowan University if they come up short of the playoffs at seasons’s end.

Oaklyn has only one game back at Rowan in their final stretch of five games but with Alloy SC and WC Predators (Oaklyn has been the only team to beat them) on the slate there’s still plenty of potential for them to put their stamp on the 2024-2025 APSL season.