The Berkeley College New Jersey men's soccer team had a very successful weekend, sweeping a pair of matches in Maine by defeating the Mustangs of CMCC on Saturday by a score of 4-1, before downing Vermont Tech 4-0 on Sunday afternoon. With the output, the Knights improved to a mark of 8-4-1 on the 2019 campaign.
The victories put the Knights in a favorable position in terms of qualifying for their first appearance in the USCAA Men's Soccer Tournament since 2016. Berkeley College New Jersey earned the No. 3 position in the latest National poll, and has four matches remaining, including three road contests, and a home showdown with the defending National champions, Penn State Brandywine.
In the Knights victory against Central Maine Community College, Berkeley jumped ahead early when newcomer Esteban Pedrueza found the back of the net off a beautiful pass from Matheo Faccin (6:52). The Knights increased their advantage to a pair of goals when Sebastian Cannizzo scored (from Marcos Hidalgo at 15:21). Cannizzo scored again at 34:54 (from Jordan Bailey) to catapult Berkeley to a commanding 3-0 edge. That would be the final goal scored of the opening session.
The Mustangs were able to get one of the aforementioned goals back at 55:51 when Asad Abukar scored an unassisted goal to slice the Knights lead to 3-1. Berkeley was able to get the goal back at 69:31 when Hidalgo registered un assisted tally to make it 4-1.
Berkeley College held a 10-9 edge in shots for the match, while also earning four corner kick opportunities compared to two for the opposition. The Knights were whistled for 11 fouls on the afternoon compared to nine for the Mustangs.
Robert Parker had to make just two saves in recording the victory in net for the Knights.
In its victory against Vermont Tech on Sunday afternoon, Berkeley received a 26th-minute goal from Giovanni Montoya (from Christopher Azevedo), while also tacking on three more tallies inside the final nine minutes of the match to account for the 4-0 final score. Azevedo (unassisted, 81:57), Carlos Goncalves (82:38, from Antonio Gigante), and Hidalgo (84:06, unassisted) were the second half goal scorers for Berkeley.
The Knights will look to make it three straight wins, and a mark of 5-1 in the month of October, when they travel to Albany, NY to take on Albany College of Pharmacy on Thursday afternoon. Start-time for that contest is scheduled for 5:00pm.