The Berkeley College men's soccer team wrapped-up the month of September in impressive fashion, capturing two victories in their most recent three matches. This past Wednesday, the Knights defeated the Centurions of Bucks County Community College by a score of 6-0 in Newton, PA. Then, this past weekend, Berkeley suffered a 2-0 setback to Albright College in Reading, PA on Saturday, before turning around the following day and rallying from a 5-3 deficit to defeat Bryant & Stratton-Syracuse by a score of 6-5 in Woodland Park, NJ. With that output, the Knights are now 9-2-1 on the 2024 campaign.
In the Knights' 6-0 shutout win over the Centurions, Berkeley scored just one goal in the opening half, courtesy of Samuel Gomez (10:33, from Steven Urbes) before exploding for five goals in the final 45 minutes of action. Veteran Ian Pallardel picked up assists on consecutive goals by standouts Suad Lukovic and Urbes to make it 3-0 Knights at the 64:16 mark. Gabriel Borges scored the visitors' fourth goal at 68:01 (from Fabrizio Sousa), and Adrian Mindra netted a tally at 72:32 (from Borges) to make it 5-0 Knights. Wrapping up the scoring for Berkeley was Borges, who netted his second goal of the day off a beautiful feed from Simon Noguerol at 76:14.
Berkeley dominated the match in all facets, holding a commanding 30-6 advantage in shots, while also earning seven corner kicks compared to none for the opposition.
Behind a stellar defense, goaltender Victor Batista only needed to make one save to earn the shutout triumph. Mohammed Samim Poya took the loss for the Centurions, allowing five goals and making seven saves in 69 minutes of action.
In Berkeley's 2-0 loss to 7-1 Albright, Lions standout Martin Rams set the tone early for by scoring a goal in just the second minute of play. John Villano was credit with an assist on the play, as the hosts jumped out ahead right out of the gate. Later, Albright's Christian Bowles slashed home a ball in the 65th minute to provide the Lions with more breathing room in the second half.
Albright won the game despite the Knights owning a distinct 17-10 edge in shots. The Lions did earn five corner kick opportunities compared to just one for Berkeley.
Knights goaltender Victor Batista took the loss between the pipes, yielding just two goals and making two saves on the evening. His counterpart, Chris Denholm, earned the shutout, making six stops in the process.
In a wild match this past Sunday, Berkeley rallied from a 5-3 first half deficit to defeat the Bobcats of Bryant & Stratton-Syracuse by a score of 6-5. In the final 25 minutes of play, Jason DeJesus (from Lukovic) and Buel (from Marco DaSilva) scored the fourth and fifth Berkeley goals, respectively, before DeJesus found the net again in the latter moments of the contest to give the Knights a dramatic victory, sending the Bobcats to their first loss of the 2024 campaign (4-1-1).
Berkeley will return to action on Wednesday afternoon, as the Knights will host NCAA Division III member Centenary University. The match will take place at Frank D. Zaccaria Memorial Park, with a start-time of 3:00pm.
