NEW YORK — The Boys in Blue finished out their 2024 season on a positive note Sunday, taking home a 1-0 victory over New York City FC II.

Huntsville scored in the 32nd minute after Forster Ajago deflected a New York defender’s pass and got the ball to Woobens Pacius, who fired the ball into the net for his eighth goal of the season.

Goalkeeper Ben Martino shut out New York’s offense, earning his first clean sheet of the year.

“I was really happy, really proud for them. I think that it kind of exemplifies who they are as people,” said HCFC head coach Chris O’Neal. “They battled through a lot of adversity through this season, and, you know, the resiliency to be able to keep the right mindset and approach this game with the right mentality, and it was a team effort, and can’t speak more highly of them.

“They had to stay focused. They had to stay as a group, as a unit, and use their voices and communicate and organize things and be ready to make interventions when they had to, and they did that today. So I’m very proud of them.”

O’Neal was asked what he took from his first nine games as head coach.

“For me, this was a fantastic opportunity to come in here with this window,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that I’ll take a lot of things that figure out what works, what doesn’t work, and then how we can keep moving forward.”

Deposits on 2025 season tickets are available here.