The Berkeley College New York men's soccer team remained unbeaten in Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference competition, as the Knights defeated the Steels of Culinary Institute of America by a score of 3-0 in a match played in Hyde Park, NY. With the win, the Knights improved to 4-3-1 overall (2-0-1 HVIAC), while Culinary Institute of America fell to 2-3 overall and 1-3 in league competition. Following the win, Head Coach Stavros Zomopoulos gave his thoughts.
"I feel that we recorded a great team victory here this afternoon," Zomopoulos said. "Our guys played as a cohesive unit. They played smart and were able to do all the necessary things in order to win a match. It was a very gratifying way for us to end September. We'll enjoy this one for a short time, as we know we are facing a very tough team in the College of New Rochelle on Monday evening."
The Knights' dominance of the Steels spans four seasons, as Berkeley College has won four consecutive contests against Culinary Institute of America. Back in 2014, the Knights outlasted the Steels in the HVIAC semifinals in penalty kicks. Berkeley then defeated Culinary Institute of America 5-0 and 6-1 in 2015 and 2016, respectively, before shutting down the Steels again earlier this afternoon.
Berkeley's first goal of today's victory came at the 28:16 mark when freshman Marcos Leon notched a tally on a penalty kick. That gave the Knights a 1-0 advantage. The score would remain that way until 69:42 when Berkeley College would add a very important insurance goal, as offensive standout Meshema Charles would blast home a ball after receiving a beautiful lead pass from Leon. The Knights held a commanding 2-0 edge at that point, as the matched approached the latter stages.
Later – at 81:35 – Matthew Perreira would put the exclamation point on a very solid Knights victory as he scored a goal on a free kick to catapult the Knights to a 3-0 lead. That would end up being the final goal of the game, as Berkeley College remained unbeaten since September 16.
The Knights will look to win for the fourth time in five tries this Monday evening, as Berkeley College opens October with a match against the Blue Angels of the College of New Rochelle. The match takes place at Aviator Field, with a start-time of 6:30pm. Berkeley will be looking for some redemption against New Rochelle after losing two contests to the Blue Angels a season ago and getting outscored 14-0 in the process.