Photo: Paul Rudderow

Reading United AC played Central Jersey Spartans away on Saturday afternoon with a play-in spot for the PDL playoffs on the line. Having suffered their first defeat of the season the week before to the Ocean City Nor’easters, Reading found itself down 2–1 in the 50th minute after Maxime Hoppenot, the brother of the Union’s own Antoine Hoppenot, scored for the Spartans.

Dante Marini scored the opener for Reading in the 32nd minute, but having seen their lead slip away—and possibly their season with it—Kadeem Dacres stepped up and righted the ship. In the 72nd minute, the midfielder buried a penalty kick to draw the two teams level. Just four minutes later, he scored another from open play to put Reading ahead.

It was the start of an 18-minute spell for Reading that saw two more goals added late, including another from Marini, but it was Dacres’s work in that crucial period after going behind that won the game for United. Dacres, who plays his college soccer for the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers and was with the U.S. U-18 national team, not only scored the leveling and game-winning goals, he also led the team in shots, with six.

Reading now head into the PDL playoffs for the sixth consecutive season, a remarkable run that might have ended if not for the efforts of Kadeem Dacres. That’s why he’s PSP’s Player of the Week.