The Berkeley College New York men's soccer team picked up a much-needed victory, defeating the Falcons of Davis College by a score of 6-2 in Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference competition. With the win, the Knights are now 2-3 on the 2016 campaign – including an unblemished 2-0 mark in conference action, while Davis College is still searching for its first victory, as the Falcons are now 0-6 on the year, and 0-2 in HVIAC tilts.
The Knights got on the scoreboard early in this contest, as Essofi Amine scored an unassisted goal 9:36 into the action to give Berkeley College a 1-0 lead. Just under 11 minutes later – at the 20:35 mark – Davis would tie the game when Zach Willis would find the back of the net to even the game at a goal apiece. Berkeley College would own the remainder of the stanza, though, getting goals from Victor Marotta and Osondu Esonwune at 24:29 and 38:57 respectively to give the Knights a 3-1 edge – an advantage Berkeley would take into the locker room at halftime.
Berkeley College spend the early stages of the second half putting the match out of reach for the Falcons. Just 3:01 into the second stanza, offensive ace Ali Dawha would net his team-leading eighth goal of the 2016 season to push the Knights' commanding lead to 4-1. 4:37 later, it was Marotta notching his second goal of the game off of a beautiful lead pass from Ahmed Asan to make it 5-1 Berkeley. Emmanuel Poku-Adusei would round out the scoring in the 55th minute, blasting a shot past the Falcons' goalkeeper to give Berkeley a 6-1 lead. Davis College would get a late goal from Matt Bartlett inside the match's final three minutes, but that would be all the Falcons would muster for the remainder of the match, as Berkeley would go on to win by four goals. Following the match, Knights Head Coach Stavros Zomopoulos gave his thoughts.
"It was very important for us to come away with a victory today," Zomopoulos said. "We didn't play well the last two matches, so for us to come out today and pick up a conference win, it's definitely a sigh of relief for us. Now we'll have three days off and get ready for another conference contest on Wednesday."
Berkeley College held a 20-8 edge in shots, while also taking seven corner kicks compared to three for the Falcons. Fouls were few and far between, with the Knights committing just five and Davis three.
The Knights will look to make it two consecutive wins on Wednesday evening, as Berkeley will host Vaughn College in another Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match. The contest will take place at Aviator Field in Brooklyn, NY, and match-time is scheduled for 8:00pm.
