The Berkeley College men's soccer team wrapped-up the regular season portion of its 2023 season in style on Wednesday afternoon, defeating Bucks County Community College by a score of 5-0. The match took place at Frank D. Zaccaria Memorial Park in Woodland Park, NJ. The victory boosts the Knights' mark to 13-3 on the year, while the Centurions slipped to 5-9-1 in the defeat.
The Knights established control of the match early, that's to standout forward Marco DaSilva's heroics inside the opening 16 minutes of action. The Woodbridge high school product notched an unassisted tally just 32 seconds into the match to Berkeley a 1-0 edge. He found the back of the net again 4:17 later, taking advantage of a beautiful push pass from Maximus Betancourt before slicing the ball home to make it 2-0. Later, DaSilva completed the hat trick, notching another unassisted tally at 29:09 to make it 3-0 Knights.
Berkeley College would add one more goal 88 seconds before halftime, as Hector Castro put away a pass from DaSilva to make it 4-0 Knights. That would be the score as time expired on the opening session.
The second half saw considerably less offense despite an abundance of chances. The Knights, however, were able to register a fifth goal, as Samuel Gomez slashed home a pass from Hector Castro to make it 5-0 in favor of the hosts. That would be the final goal of the afternoon, as the Knights advanced for yet another home victory.
The Knights dominated the match from the start, recording a whopping 57 shots (24 on-goal) compared to 10 for the Bucks. Berkeley's aggressiveness led to 14 corner kick opportunities, while the visitors recorded three.
Berkeley netminders Victor Batista (78:53) and Jose Hurtado (11:07) combined to record a shutout for the victors. Jordi Ronal Ambrojo-Uceta made some incredible stops in goal for the Bucks, as he finished the afternoon with 19 saves despite allowing the five goals and taking the defeat.
Berkeley will now look towards the postseason, as the Knights will aim to win their second consecutive Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title. Tournament play begins Saturday, November 4, as the No. 2 seeded Knights will take on tournament host (No. 3 seed) Word of Life. Start time for that match is 2:30pm, and, should the Knights win, they'd play for the conference title Sunday, November 5, at 4:00pm.
