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Plagued by some bad luck and bad weather in a three-game losing streak, Atlantic City FC got their inaugural season on track last week with a pair of wins behind a couple game-winning penalty kicks from captain Sidney Rivera.
Rivera had a brace last Wednesday in a 3-1 win over Electric City Shock at home and scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Hershey FC on the road on Saturday. Noah Blodget also scored for the Aces last Wednesday on an assist from Cam Vickers that ended a three-game scoring drought.
Rivera converted the game-winning goal from the penalty spot on Saturday in the 82nd minute. The former Orlando City FC and Puerto Rico FC striker leads the team with four goals.
With the two wins, Atlantic City FC is tied on points with New Jersey Copa FC and Junior Lone Star FC in the NPSL Keystone Conference Division standings. All three teams are three points back of FC Motown and West Chester United, which are even on 12 points.
Junior Lone Star came from behind to pick up their third win of the season 3-2 over Electric City Shock. Palle Finn Jespersen opened the scoring for the Shock off a set piece in the 17th minute but the Stars responded with unanswered goals from Bill Walleekendeh, Deron Joe, and Nyakeh Kamara (his third of the season) to take all three points on the road.
After outscoring opponents 16-1 in their first four matches, West Chester ran into an on-fire Copa FC side on Saturday that put the ball in the back of the net five times in a 5-3 win.
Anthony Ferrer opened the scoring in the third minute, but Richie Schlentz responded with an equalizer three minutes later and scored twice more before halftime through Aiden McFadden and Chas Wilson to take a 3-1 lead but Copa FC responded with four more goals from Jonathan Yazo, Louis Silva, Raphael Araujo, and Rafael Terci to hand the visitors their first loss of the season.
Torch FC fell to 0-4-0 on the season with a 3-0 loss to FC Motown on Saturday.
They visit West Chester United tonight at 7 p.m. while Hershey FC visits FC Motown. Atlantic City FC heads to Drew University to play FC Motown on Saturday and Junior Lone Star hosts FC Monmouth in South Philly while Hershey FC hosts Electric City Shock.