The Berkeley College men's soccer team suffered a very difficult loss on Sunday afternoon, falling to the Mighty Oaks of SUNY-ESF by a score of 4-3 in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match played at Solvay High School in Solvay, NY. With the loss, the Knights fell to a record of 8-5-1 on the season (6-2-1 league play), while SUNY-ESF put an exclamation point on an undefeated season in league action, improving to 9-0 in the conference.
With today's results, SUNY-ESF clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament. The Mighty Oaks will take on No. 4 seed New Rochelle. As for Berkeley College, the Knights earned the No. 3 seed, and they will take on the No. 2 seed – the Panthers of Albany College of Pharmacy. Both semifinal round matches will take place this Saturday in Albany, NY.
In the Knights' defeat to SUNY-ESF, things looked promising for Berkeley College in the first half, as the Knights scored three consecutive goals in the opening session to take a commanding lead. Standout Meshema Charles scored in the 24th minute (from Hallgrim Tryli), and those goals were followed by unassisted scores from Tryli (32:00) and Omario Rosen (35:00). It looked as though the Knights were on their way to dealing the Mighty Oaks their only HVIAC loss of the 2017 campaign.
SUNY-ESF – however – would rage back in the second half. Luke Day's goal at 51:00 (from Geoff Golick) cut Berkeley's College lead to 3-1. 10 minutes later, the Mighty Oaks drew within a goal when Mickael Myagkota would find the back of the net (off of a pass from Joseph Kulikowski). That made it 3-2. Five short minutes after that, SUNY-ESF would tie the game when Day swung a pass over to Day who buried the ball into the net. That made it 3-3. The goal that proved to be the game-winner for SUNY-ESF was scored at 69:00 when Kulikowski would net his second goal of the contest (from Cooper Weinman).
The Knights were unable to net an equalizer over the final 31 minutes of the match, as SUNY-ESF held on for an impressive one-goal victory.
SUNY-ESF held a 14-8 shots advantage for the match, and the Mighty Oaks also earned 11 corner kick opportunities compared to four for the Knights. Both teams committed 10 fouls apiece.
Berkeley College netminder Osvin Videz-Vasquez stopped 10 shots and allowed four goals in a losing cause, while SUNY-ESF netminder Carmine Tronolone allowed three goals while stopping five shots.
The Knights will look to bounce back Wednesday, as Berkeley College will take on SUNY-Delhi in Delhi, NY. Start-time for the contest is scheduled for 2:30pm.
