Columbia, MD - In a clash of conference and regional rivals, the Dragons were able to come away victorious for a third straight time. Star striker Anderson Mejia Marroquin (Elkridge, MD/Hammond) scored his seventh goal of the season, second best in the conference, to lead Howard to a critical victory.

Marroquin scored in hust the seventh minute of the game on a beautiful lob over the keeper with Dongkeon Jang (Elkridge, MD/Centennial) picking up his first assist of the year on a great flick on to get Marroquin in on goal as Howard stunned the Owls early on. 

From there it was a battle of attrition for most of the game with the ball staying mostly in a battle of the midfielders. The Owls managed just one shot of goal the entire contest despite some pretty good looks as Simon Bradford (Columbia, MD/Hammond) earned his first shutout of the season.

Howard piled the shots on, especially late in the game as Brian Hernandez-Canaca (Laurel, MD/Laurel) had a great opportunity to ice the game in the 70^th minute as a Daniel Fuentes (Clarksville, MD/River Hill) cross found Hernandez-Canaca wide open in the middle of the box, but his shot went just over the cross bar.

Anthony Perez Rodriguez (Columbia, MD/Hammond) hit a missile shot from 20 yards out that was smartly saved by the Owls goalkeeper as the midfielder put on six shots in the contest.

In the end, the defense led by Bryce Waller (Clarksville, MD/River Hill) and a midfield led by Alexander Estrada-Avila (Ellicott City, MD/Oakland Mills) played well enough to earn a clean sheet and pick up an important win to keep Howard undefeated in conference play.

The Dragons will face another conference foe later in the week as they travel to Hagerstown on Friday, September 14 for a 4 PM match.