The Berkeley College New York men's soccer team picked up a huge victory on Wednesday evening, holding off the Privateers of SUNY Maritime by a score of 2-1 in a match that was played at Reinhart Field in the Bronx. With the victory, the Knights snapped their three-match losing skid to improve to 2-3 on the year, while the Privateers dropped to 3-3 on the 2019 campaign.
In what could be momentous pendulum-swinging moment for Berkeley's season, the Knights defeated a team that had won 28 of its previous 45 matches overall, and has always been a solid NCAA Division III Skyline Conference member.
The Privateers were the aggressors on offense throughout the first stanza, peppering seven shots and earning four corner kick opportunities. On the flip side, Berkeley was only able to muster a pair of shots. As the opening sessions came to a close, the teams were scoreless.
In the second half, the Knights were first to light up the scoreboard, as offensive standout Amadou Sy found the back of the net in the 55th minute, tipping the ball past Maritime netminder Michael Rodriguez to give Berkeley College a 1-0 edge (assisted by Jean Gardy-Derineau). 10 minutes later, the Knights increased their advantage to 2-0 when Jean Gardy-Derineau took advantage of a beautiful cross pass by Sy and drilled the ball into the back of the net.
SUNY Maritime was able to slice Berkeley's lead in half with less than 15 minutes remaining in the match when Thomas Kropp sent a free kick into the box, where Larry Castello headed the ball past Dario Cruz-Sepulveda.
Later, in the closing moments of the contest, the Privateers were within striking distance, and with eight seconds on the clock a Berkeley foul just outside the box gave Maritime one final chance to net the equalizer. However, the free kick played inside the box didn't bounce SUNY Maritime's way, and the Knights held on for an impressive 2-1 road victory.
There were only a total of nine shots on goal the entire evening, with Berkeley accounting for five of those, compared to four for SUNY Maritime.
The Knights will look to make it two consecutive victories, as they'll host Albany College of Pharmacy on Sunday afternoon in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match. The contest takes place at Aviator Field, with a start-time of 3:00pm.
