The Berkeley College men's soccer team continued to roll this week, picking up a 10-2 victory against SUNY Orange this past Tuesday, before defeating Word of Life 6-2 in a HVIAC match the following day. The match against the Colts took place at Frank D. Zaccaria Memorial Park in Woodland Park, NJ, while the match with the Huskies took place in Warren County, NY.
With the pair of victories, the Knights are now 7-0 on the 2023 campaign (1-0 HVIAC), and are +32 in the goals scored category for the year.
In the Knights' dominating victory over SUNY Orange, Berkeley scored five goals in each half. Berkeley's tallies in the first half came courtesy of Ian Pallardel (1:00, from Michael Paredes), Jacoby Calvo (7:00, from Massimo Rondon), Paredes (14:00, from Pallardel), Hector Castro (21:00, from Cory Martinez), and Fabrizio Sousa (39:00, from Joseph Buel).
Marco DaSilva scored consecutive goals to start the second half, netting tallies in the 51st and 58th minutes. That catapulted the Knights' commanding edge to 7-0. After Orange netted a goal in the 66th minute, Nathan Tejada scored in the 72nd (from Brandon Chaves), and Chaves then notched a goal of his own (from Tejada) in the 78th. At that juncture, Berkeley held a 9-1 advantage.
SUNY Orange scored a goal in the 81st minute to slice its deficit to 9-2, but Tejada scored again in the 83rd to cap the scoring for the day.
A day later, Berkeley played its first HVIAC match of the 2023 season, and the Knights fell behind 1-0 at the 11:24 mark when Joseph Matthews sliced home a pass from David Singer to give the hosts a 1-0 edge. 4:05 later, Berkeley tied the match 1-1 when Jacoby Calvo tapped home a pass from Samuel Gomez.
The game remained deadlocked at a goal apiece for the ensuing 20:40, until Berkeley broke the stalemate at 36:09 when Paredes netted an unassisted goal to make it 2-1 Knights. Word of Life would net the equalizer just before halftime, scoring at 44:14 when Matthews notched his second tally of the day (from Santiago Miranda). At the half, the HVIAC clash was all tied at two goals apiece.
Berkeley and Word of Life struggled to score for the first 23:33 of the second session, but the Knights' offense would erupt for four goals over a span of 20:15 to capture the victory. Suad Lukovic scored what would prove to be the game winner at 68:33, capitalizing on Marco DaSilva's nifty pass in the box by blasting it home. Castro scored the Knights' fourth goal of the afternoon at 81:52 (from Pallardel), and DaSilva and Martinez capped the scoring for the afternoon at 86:26 (from Castro) and 88:48 (from Martinez), respectively.
Knights netminder Victor Batista, just like his team, stayed unbeaten. Batista made three saves while allowing the two goals. Berkeley dominated in the shots category, registering 32 compared to six for the hosts.
Berkeley will return to action on Friday, September 29, as the Knights will take to the road to battle Bryant & Stratton (Rochester). Start-time for that contest is scheduled for 3:00pm.
