The Berkeley College New York men's soccer team split a pair of weekend matches, defeating the Mighty Oaks of SUNY-ESF in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest by a score of 3-2 on Saturday afternoon, before falling to the Kangeroos of SUNY Canton by a score of 8-0 on Sunday. With the split of the two contests, the Knights are now 4-9 on the 2016 campaign (4-3 HVIAC), while SUNY-ESF dipped to 7-3 on the year (5-3 HVIAC), and SUNY Canton improved its mark to 3-9-1.
In the Knights' thrilling victory over SUNY-ESF, Berkeley College battled back from a 2-1 deficit at the half to grab the victory. In the opening session, the Knights struck first, as offensive standout Osondu Esonwune netted a goal to give his team a 1-0 advantage. Ali Dawha picked up an assist on the goal. The Mighty Oaks used tallies by Owen Hennigan (from George Beinetti at 28:00) and Mickael Myagkota (40:00) to catapult ahead by a score of 2-1. That would be the score as the teams entered the locker room at halftime.
The Knights used a goal by Emmanuel Poku-Adusei at 47:00 to tie the game at two goals apiece. After neither team was able to break the deadlock over the ensuing 40 minutes, the Knights finally broke through for the go-ahead goal when Dawha would find the back of the net again to give his team a 3-2 advantage – a lead the Knights would not relinquish.
In addition to Dawha's heroics, Berkeley College netminder Osvin Videz Vasquez played a fantastic match, making 24 saves while allowing just the two goals. His counterpart – Mighty Oaks goaltender Matt Hoppe – made five saves in a losing effort.
Less than 24 hours after their victory over SUNY-ESF, the Knights were back in action against SUNY Canton. The Kangeroos wasted no time grabbing a quick lead just 38 seconds into the contest when Edward Malinoski Jr. scored a goal on a header off service from Marc Ramirez. SUNY Canton increased that lead to a pair of goals with just 12:26 remaining in the opening session when Erdous Lebron found Mouhamadou Cisse in the midfield. Cisse then tapped a beautiful pass over to Josh Geller who one-timed a ball behind the keeper to increase his team's edge to 2-0.
SUNY Canton added a third score in the 38th minute when Andrew Barber tallied a goal off a corner kick from the far side that got through traffic and into the far side of the net. The Kangeroos made it 4-0 at 40:03 when Mamadou Dansoko collected a rebound and put it home after an initial shot from Kyle Smith was saved by Osvin Videz Vasquez. Smith added a goal of his own with 3:19 remaining in the first half off a penalty kick after a Knights defender committed a yellow card in the box. SUNY Canton led 5-0 at the half.
Cisse scored a goal in the 54th minute to extend the SUNY Canton's lead to six goals. In the 72nd minute, Tyler Cook took the ball down the left side and blasted a shot that was initially saved by Vasquez. Cisse collected the rebound and buried his second goal of the day behind Vasquez. With 15:30 remaining, Hamza Meer netted a goal to round out the scoring for the Kangeroos.
The Knights will now have five days off before returning to action on Saturday afternoon, as Berkeley College will play a critical Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against the Panthers of Albany College of Pharmacy. Start-time for that contest begins at 5:00pm.
