In one of the most thrilling contests of the season for the Berkeley College New York men's soccer team, the Knights played to a 3-3 tie with the Lions of The King's College (NY) Wednesday evening in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest at Aviator Field in Brooklyn, NY. Following the tie, Berkeley College is now. 3-3-1 on the 2017 campaign, and 1-0-1 in conference play. The Lions moved to 3-2-1 overall, and 3-3-2 in league competition.
It was the second consecutive season that the two conference foes were engaged in a nail-biting match, as the Knights had inched by The King's College (NY) by a score of 1-0 during the 2016 season. This year's version of the match saw a lot more offense, starting with the Lions getting on the scoreboard first when Josiah Simons would score a goal (off of a pass from Pedro Gallaga), as he slipped the ball passed Knights netminder Ronnie Roman to give his team a 1-0 edge.
20 minutes after the match's opening goal, the Knights would tie the game at the 41:25 mark when offensive standout Meshema Charles would find the back of the net (after being fed the ball by Omario Rosen). As the teams broke for halftime, the game was tied 1-1.
Despite out-shooting the Lions by a count of 10-3 and being the more opportunistic squad throughout the game's first 45 minutes, Berkeley College came out even more aggressive as the second half started. That aggressiveness paid off in a big way – as the Knights would score two goals – one by Rosen at 53:30 – and another by speedster Marcos Leon at 66:49 (from Rosen) – to take a 3-1 lead.
Berkeley would hold that 3-1 advantage, until everything changed inside the game's final 20 minutes. The Lions' Michel Wenzel would score at the 71:18 mark (from Gallaga) to bring The King's College (NY) to within a goal at 3-2. Later – on a free kick from about 30 yards out – Thomas Champlin would somehow find a way to get the ball into the net to tie the game at three goals apiece. That would be the score as regulation ended and the game moved to the extra session.
Both teams had their opportunities in the two extra periods, but neither team was able to find the back of the net for the coveted "golden goal", and the game ended in a tie. It was easily the most thrilling contest the Knights had played thus far during the 2017 campaign.
The Knights out-shot the Lions 43-9 on the evening, while also earning 16 corner kicks compared to four for The King's College (NY). Berkeley netminder Ronnie Roman played 45 minutes, allowing one goal and making one stop before giving away to Osvin Videz-Vasquez who played the contest's final 65 minutes, allowing two goals and making two saves.
Lions goaltender Benjamin Borchelt played the entire match, allowing three goals and making 10 saves.
Berkeley will return to action on Saturday, as the Knights will travel to Hyde Park, NY to battle the Steels of Culinary Institute of America in another Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match. Start-time for that contest is scheduled for 1:00pm.
