The Berkeley College New York men's soccer team clinched the HVIAC regular season title on Monday evening, as the Knights shut down the Lions of The King's College (NY) by a score of 3-0 in a match that took place at Aviator Field in Brooklyn, NY.
With the victory, the Knights improved to a mark of 10-5-1 on the year, and 5-0 in conference action. Berkeley College will enter this weekend's HVIAC Tournament as the No. 1 seed, and the Knights will be the clear favorite to win it, having outscored five conference foes by a combined score 27-0. The Knights have one HVIAC match remaining – a contest against Five Towns College on Wednesday evening.
For the Lions, October has not treated them well. The King's College (NY) sprinted out to an impressive 6-0-1 mark this season, but since the calendar turned to October, the Lions are 1-3, getting outscored by opponents by a combined score of 8-2.
In tonight's contest, neither team was able to muster much on the offensive side in the first 45 minutes of action. Only nine combined shots were registered in the opening session, including five by Berkeley and four by the Lions.
The Knights finally broke through for the first goal of the match in the 49th minute, when standout Amadou Sy netted his USCAA-leading and HVIAC-leading 20th goal of the 2019 campaign (48:54, unassisted). Berkeley College added an insurance goal at 57:10 when Carlos Veliz found the back of the net (from Marcos Leon) to make it 2-0. The Knights put an exclamation point on their victory inside the final 90 seconds, when Veliz notched his second tally of the night at 88:38 (unassisted). That made it 3-0 Berkeley, and that would turn out to be the final score.
Dario Cruz-Sepulveda, who returned after missing just one match due to injury, only had to make one save in recording yet another shutout. His G.A.A. on the season is now at 1.27, and he has stopped 69 shots in 15 matches this season.
Olivier Saye played well in net for the Lions despite allowing the three goals, as he stopped seven shots, allowing his team to stick around in the match.
Berkeley out-shot the Lions by a count of 14-10 for the evening. The Knights earned four corner kick opportunities compared to two for The King's College (NY), and Berkeley was whistled for 16 fouls compared to 15 for the Lions.
The Knights will wrap-up their regular season on Wednesday afternoon, as Berkeley travels to Dix Hills, NY to face the Sound of Five Towns College in an HVIAC contest. Start-time is scheduled for 4:30pm. Those interested in following live stats during that contest can do so by clicking the link below:
https://www.berkeleycollegeknights.com/sports/msoc/new_york/2019-20/boxscores/20191023_neiu.xml
