Rhinos Fall To D.C. In Open Cup Semifinal

(Boyds, Maryland)� (photo by Tony Quinn) The Rhinos traveled to play D.C United at the Maryland SoccerPlex Tuesday night looking to advance to the finals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournament for the third time in team history. The defending champions continued their success in the tournament by defeating the visitors by a score of 2-1.

D.C. opened the scoring in the 41st minute after Rochester defender Ty Harden was called for a controversial hand-ball in the penalty area and United forward Jaime Moreno stepped up to put home the penalty kick, giving the home side a 1-0 lead.

Down 1-0 at the half, the Rhinos kept looking to find openings in the United defense. They found one and capitalized on it when forward Tai Atieno tied the score at 1-1 in the 68th minute after a free kick taken by midfielder Andrew Gregor was put into the D.C. box. The ball found its way to Atieno who scored his third goal of the tournament.� But�United was up to the task and broke the tie in the 82nd minute when forward Thabiso Khumalo put in the rebound after Rhinos goalkeeper Tim Melia initially saved a break-away opportunity off of midfielder Chris Pontius.� Khumalo, a former USL-2 player, has two goals during Open Cup play after joining United at midseason from Pittsburgh.

D.C. will advance to face the Seattle Sounders in the finals of the tournament in September.

Rochester will resume USL-1 play when they host the Cleveland City Stars Saturday night at 7:35 p.m. at Marina Auto Stadium. The two sides have met twice in league play this season, with each team winning 3-0 results in Cleveland.� The Stars also lost 2-1 to the Rhinos in Rochester in the second round of U.S. Open Cup play.��