The Berkeley College New York men's soccer team dropped its second consecutive match, falling to the Beavers of the City College of New York by a score of 4-1 Monday afternoon at the No. 91 field at Randall's Island. With the loss, the Knights dropped to 8-4 on the season, while the Beavers improved their record to 4-6.
The Beavers jumped ahead in the early stages of the match, taking advantage of a corner kick opportunity when Lanfia Diaby lofted a pass in front of the net that was headed in by Syed Haider just 2:29 into the contest. Shortly after that goal, CCNY struck again when Kenan Redzematovic tapped a ball home at 4:07 to give his team a 2-0 lead. The Knights had their chances to slice into CCNY's lead, but Beaver netminder Maxwell Berkow put forth a phenomenal first session of action, stopping five shots. At the half, the Beavers led by two.
In the second period, it was Berkeley College getting off to a fast start as newcomer Masahiro Kiuchi headed a ball into the top right corner of the net at 46:42 to bring the Knights to within a goal at 2-1. A little over 18 minutes later, the Beavers got the goal back when Mostafa Haridi scored on a header off of a throw-in by Anthony Scarallo. That tally seemed to take some of the wind out of the sails of the Knights, as CCNY would add another goal in the 73rd minute (at 72:08) Diaby slipped a ball into the left corner of the net to put his team up 4-1, a score the Beavers would eventually win by. Following the match, Knights Head Coach Stavros Zomopoulos gave his thoughts.
"We did not play our best match today - and even with that - we had opportunities to score, we just weren't able to take advantage of them," Zomopoulos said. "CCNY played a very solid game this afternoon. We will look to shake this one off and get back on track on Wednesday at Maritime."
Despite dropping the match, Berkeley dominated the shots category, out-shooting the Beavers by a count of 25-16. Both teams had six corner kick opportunities apiece, and CCNY netminder Maxwell Berkow made 10 saves compared to four for the Knights' Gustavo Moreno.
Berkeley will look to get back on track on Wednesday evening, as the Knights will travel to Throggs Neck, NY to battle SUNY Maritime at Reinhart Field. Start-time for the match is scheduled for 4:00pm.
