The Berkeley College New York men's soccer team suffered a tough loss on Monday evening, falling to the Giants of Keystone College by a score of 4-2 in a match played in La Plume, PA. With the loss, the Knights' record is now even at 1-1, while Keystone won its third consecutive contest and improved its record to 3-2 on the 2017 campaign.
Things looked promising for the Knights in the early stages of the match. Berkeley College found the back of the net first when Matthew Perreira made a brilliant play, stealing the ball from a defender and blasting home a shot from the top of the box to give the Knights the early 1-0 advantage (at 5:21). Berkeley would increase its lead a little over 11 minutes later (at 16:28) when newcomer Jean-Gardy Derineau scored on a shot from close range to give the Knights a 2-0 edge. Perreira and Meshema Charles were credited with assists on the play.
Keystone College would respond to the Knights' two early goals, though. At the 23:25 mark, Talhah Netherlin received a gorgeous cross-pass from Carlos Bonilla before tapping the ball into the net to pull his team to within a goal at 2-1. The score remained 2-1 in favor of the Knights for nearly another 19 minutes before the Giants' Chiemeka Okoro would blast home a goal from about 10 yards out (at 42:15 off a long ball from Jalen Freeman) to even the score, 2-2.
In the second half, Keystone used a pair of goals a little over 21 minutes apart from one another to close the door on the Knights. Netherlin would notch his second goal of the game at 56:04. That tally was unassisted. Later – 77:36 into the match – the Giants would notch an insurance goal when Okoro would find the net for the second time in the match, as he tapped the ball into an empty net following a misplay by the Knights' defense. That would make the score 4-2 in favor of Keystone, a score that would then remain unchanged for the remainder of the match.
Despite the loss for the Knights, goaltender Ronnie Roman did everything in his power to keep his team within striking distance, as he made 14 stops on the evening despite allowing the four goals. Keystone College goalkeeper Steven Heintz Jr. got credited the victory behind a stellar performance by his defense, as Heintz Jr. only faced five shots, stopping three of them and letting in two.
The Giants dominated in the shots category, totaling 25 to Berkeley's nine. The Knights were whistled for 16 fouls compared to 12 for Keystone College.
The Knights will look to bounce back Wednesday evening, as Berkeley College will take to the road to battle SUNY Maritime. Start-time for that contest is scheduled for 5:00pm.
