The Berkeley College New York women's soccer team lost a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game Thursday evening, falling to the Bears of St. Joseph's College of Brooklyn by a score of 10-1 in a 70-minute contest at Aviator Field in Brooklyn, NY. With the win, the Bears improved to 11-3 on the 2014 campaign, and 2-2 in conference competition, while the Knights finalized their regular season at 0-5 (0-4 HVIAC).
Following the game, the Berkeley College Department of Athletics - including Director of Athletics Andy DeStephano, Athletic Coordinator Stephen Spagnoli, Head Coach Mike Butler, and the rest of the women's soccer program took a few moments to honor two of the team's seniors - Elizabeth Enriquez and Daisy Velez. Those two student-athletes were presented commemorative plaques honoring their years of service to the program.
On a cold and misty evening at Aviator Field, the Bears dominated the game offensively. Shannon Rorn tallied the first goal of the evening for St. Joseph's College at 7:27, burying a pass from Maria Randazzo to give her team a 1-0 lead. Three consecutive goals by Cansu Usta (at 9:43, unassisted, at 25:13, from Destiny Marino, and at 37:49, from Pam Chernyakhovsky) ballooned the Bears edge to 4-0. A score by Christina Caruso at the 41:14 mark of the period (from Chernyakhovsky) gave St. Joseph's College a commanding 5-0 lead.
The Knights did get on the board, though, when Briana Ortega broke free and scored an unassisted goal, slipping a ball past Bears' netminder Nicole Farinella at 41:40 of the opening session to bring the Knights to within 5-1. St. Joseph's' Usta would net her fourth goal of the game a little less than two minutes later to give the Bears a 6-1 advantage - a lead they would hold going into the half.
In the second half, the Bears would tack on four more goals to account for the 10-1 final score. St. Joseph's College out-shot the Knights by a count of 37-2 for the evening, while also holding a 7-1 edge in corner kicks for the night.
Berkeley College netminder Fredrica Berg collected eight saves in a losing effort.
St. Joseph's College will now look ahead to Sunday afternoon, as the Bears will enter the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed and play No. 2 seeded King's College at Randall's Island. That match is scheduled for 4:00pm. As for Berkeley College, the Knights' 2014 season has now finalized, and the team will look to improve during the offseason before coming back to put forth a strong run during the 2015 campaign.