The Berkeley College New Jersey men's soccer team suffered a tough defeat to Wesley College on the first day of the Gilmore Alumni Classic (hosted by Rowan University), falling to the Wolverines by a score of 3-2 in overtime at the Rowan Soccer Field in Glassboro, NJ. With the defeat, the Knights dropped to 1-3 on the 2015 campaign, while Wesley picked up its first win of the year in improving to 1-3-1.
Things looked promising for Berkeley College in the early stages of the contest, as the Knights' jumped out ahead by a score of 1-0 in the 25th minute (24:57) when standout Juan Faciolince collected a pass from Carlos Gutierrez and blasted a ball into the net from 20 yards out. That would be the only goal scored in the opening session, as Berkeley led 1-0 at halftime.
Wesley College evened the game at a goal apiece in the 55th minute when Will Mileski tapped a pass to Tobi Sowande in the box. Sowande then drilled the ball home to tie the game. Just over nine and a half minutes later (at 63:20), the Wolverines would take the lead when Adrian Coverdale scored on a rebound to put his team ahead 2-1.
The score remained 2-1 in favor of Wesley College until Berkeley's John Grant notched an unassisted goal in the 83rd minute (at 82:03) to knot the game at two. Neither club was able to record a tie-breaking tally in the final 7:57 of regulation, so the game headed to overtime.
In the fourth minute of the extra session, the Wolverines would put the game away when Mileski headed-in a cross pass from Bryant Rashford to give his team a hard-fought 3-2 overtime victory. Following the defeat, Berkeley College Head Coach Bruno Ferreira gave his thought.
"Obviously I'm disappointed with tonight's result, but I'm very proud of the way our guys competed," Ferreira said. "We fell behind 2-1 in the second half and never stopped pushing for that tying goal. This is a tough loss, but we need to put it behind us quickly because we have a tough game against Moravian tomorrow night."
Wesley held a slight edge in the shots category, recording 13 to Berkeley's 11. Berkeley was whistled for 20 fouls on the night compared to 16 for the Wolverines, and Wesley was offside six times while the Knights were once.
Wolverines goaltender Ryan Sanders picked up the win in net, facing eight shots and making six saves while allowing two goals. Berkeley's Marcelo Pizarro took the loss, yielding three tallies while stopping three shots.
Berkeley will return to action tomorrow, as they'll face Moravian on day two of Rowan's Gilmore Alumni Classic. Start-time for that contest is scheduled for 5:00pm.
