The Berkeley College New York men's soccer team closed the book on the 2017 on a positive note, as the Knights defeated the Macabees of Yeshiva University on Sunday evening by a score of 5-2. With the win, Berkeley finalized its season with a record of 9-6-2, while Yeshiva University dipped to 5-11 on the year. The match took place at Votee Park in Teaneck, New Jersey. Following the match, Head Coach Stavros Zomopoulos spoke.
"It was very gratifying to see our team close this season on a positive note – with a hard-fought victory," Zomopoulos said. "We have a very solid core of student-athletes here, and most of them did a great job of understanding their roles and contributing in their own unique ways. Obviously – we have some maturing to do in terms of finishing matches – but I feel we will be better prepared for that in 2018."
The Knights scored the only goal of the first period at the 31:51 mark when Jordan Mabuye zipped a ball inside the box to Marcos Leon who would buried the ball into the net – passed Maccabees goaltender Benjamin Aboudi – to give his team a 1-0 edge. That would be the score as the opening session came to a close.
In the second stanza, Berkeley College took a 2-0 advantage at 55:55 when Meshema Charles' pass from the left wing to Matthew Perreira was tipped in. Yeshiva University would cut the Knights' lead in half at 74:49 when Jake Berlin would score an unassisted goal following a scramble in front of the box. That made is 2-1 in favor of Berkeley.
The Knights would waste no time getting that aforementioned goal back, however, as Hallgrim Tryli would blast home a cross pass from Daniel Ramos at 75:34 to give Berkeley College a two goal edge once again. Charles' goal (assisted by Samuel Nortey) at 82:46 gave the Knights a commanding 4-1 lead.
Yeshiva and Berkeley would each add one more goal apiece, with the Maccabees getting an unassisted goal from Ilan Slonim at 84:09, and the Knights getting a goal from Jovani Guzman at 88:53.
Berkeley College out-shot Yeshiva University by a count of 27-10, while also attempting three corner kicks compared to two for the Maccabees.
With a slew of talented young players set to return for the Knights next season, Berkeley College will certainly be poised to build on this season's solid campaign.
The Knights open the 2018 season on September 1 at Fisher College.