By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — It took a player doing something out of character for the Greece Odyssey Leopards to gain some revenge Thursday afternoon.
Josue Fontanez connected in the 89th minute as Odyssey rallied to defeat Greece Olympia, 2-1 in Monroe County League action, Thursday.
Fontanez converted a direct kick from 25 yards with the clock winding down in the first overtime for Odyssey’s second straight win and third this season.
“He placed it well,” Odyssey head coach Scott Mikulski said. “He got it on target.”
The goal was the sixth of the season for Fontanez and second game winner of the week, but as his coach noted it came in an unlikely manner.
“He doesn’t normally take set pieces,” Mikulski stated. “I normally leave it for other people. Maybe on the field he had a feeling or something. I was about to say ‘what are you doing? I don’t want you taking that.’”
The senior forward scored in the 52nd minute of Odyssey’s 4-3 win over Eastridge on Tuesday.
“He’s having a good senior season,” Mikulski added. “We’re excited. You can’t teach speed. He’s got the speed, and he puts himself in position to score goals.”
Odyssey improved to 3-0 in Monroe County Division 4 and are tied for first with Canandaigua.
“One of our goals is to win the division, and it’s never happened for Odyssey.”
The win also gave the Leopards a two-game lead over an Olympia squad which swept the season series between the Maiden Lane rivals last year.
“First game they really destroyed us under the lights, 5-1,” said Mikulski last season. “Second time we lost late.”
It looked like Olympia would make it a third straight win.
Reigning division Player of the Year Noah Mohamed led teammate Shagar Jogi into the box for 1-0 lead in the game’s 40th minute.
But the Leopards made it difficult for Mohamed to create throughout the remainder of the contest.
“Everybody knows who he is,” Mikulski said of Mohamed. “We knew going into the game that you have game plan a little bit. We didn’t want to stay on him the whole time, but any time 40 yards and in that kid will crack a shot. We were aware of him and tried to do what we could to not give him a good look. I thought we did a nice job containing him.”
Ryan Ozzello leveled the match with a penalty kick in the 60th minute.
“We put ourselves in a hole with 40 seconds left in that first half, and we’ve never really been a good team to come back from being down,” Mikulski explained. “We lucked out getting the penalty kick and putting that away.
“I thought we had the better of the play in the second half. First half was kind of even. Second half and the overtime I thought we had the better of the play. It worked out for us.”
Odyssey held off nine Olympia corner kick attempts including three straight in a one-minute sequence late in the second half.
“We got them one more time this year, so that will be tough. I know that they’re going to want revenge.”
Odyssey keeper Vince Alongi made three saves.
The two teams will meet on October 11th.
Odyssey plays Edison/Monroe Friday. A 4:15 kickoff is scheduled.
Olympia plays at Eastridge Saturday. An 11 a.m. start is scheduled.
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