The Berkeley College New Jersey men's soccer team continued to roll in the early stages of the 2016 campaign, as the Knights picked up a pair of victories over the weekend, defeating Penn State Wilkes Barre on Friday evening by a score of 6-0 before silencing Penn State Mont Alto by a final count of 9-0 on Saturday afternoon. With the victories, the Knights have now won five consecutive contests, and boast a record of 5-1.
In the Knights' victory over Penn State Wilkes Barre, Berkeley netted a pair of late goals in the opening session, with standout Matthew Neto finding the back of the net at the 39:15 mark, and newcomer Luiz Martins adding a tally right before time at expired on the half (Martins scored at 44:55).
The second half saw Berkeley gradually add to their advantage. At 45:30, Mario Hernandez collected a pass from Daniel Romain before blasting the ball into the net to put the Knights ahead 3-0. 6:25 later, Romain scored a goal of his own off a beautiful lead pass from Lucas Vasconcellos. That put the Knights head by a score of 4-0. Marins and Vasconcellos added scores at the 71:13 and 79:18 marks respectively to round out the scoring.
The next day – the Knights continued their offensive show, scoring nine goals against another USCAA opponent – Penn State Mont Alto. Berkeley College got four goal contributions in the first half of that contest, with Neto scoring the first goal, Martins tallying the following two, and David DeJesus scoring the fourth.
In the second stanza, the Knights continued to find the back of the net, with Martins scoring his third goal of the contest, Vasconcellos adding one, and Romain scoring three consecutive goals to round out the scoring. Following the two victories, Head Coach Bruno Ferreira gave his thoughts on his team's fast start this season.
"Our team is playing with a tremendous amount of confidence right now, and it's encouraging," Ferreira said. "This team plays together, and the student-athletes support one another. We're 5-1 right now, and we understand that the schedule coming up will be very challenging. We're looking forward to the litmus tests ahead of us."
The Knights will return to action on Thursday evening, as Berkeley College will travel to La Plume, PA to battle Keystone College. Start-time for that contest is scheduled for 7:00pm.
