ALBANY, N.Y. — Top seed and regular-season champion Berkeley College defeated No. 2 seed SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 1-0, to capture the 2019 Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Championship on a rainy Sunday afternoon at the ACPHS Soccer Field.
With the victory, the Knights (12-6-1, 5-1 HVIAC) claimed their fourth league title and first since 2015. Ranked No. 1 in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) coaches' poll, Berkeley also earns the conference's automatic bid to the USCAA National Championship to be held from November 7-11 in Virginia Beach, Va.
Berkeley avenged their lone conference loss of the season on Wednesday, bypassing league newcomer and No. 4 seed Five Towns College (9-4-1, 3-2-1) with a 13-0 triumph in the first semifinal. Amadou Sy (Dakar, Senegal/Boys & Girls) netted six goals and assisted on two others to guide the Knights to their first title game in four seasons.
In the other semifinal, SUNY ESF (6-4-2, 3-1-2) earned a spot in their fourth-straight final with a 4-0 clean sheet over No. 3 seed Vaughn College (5-5, 4-2) led by Jack Phillips' (Milwaukee, WI/Wauwatosa East) two-goal effort.
In the Sunday finale, both teams entered halftime in a scoreless deadlock with ESF maintaining a 9-4 shot edge after 45 minutes. But it would be Sy who provided the lone goal of the contest in the 59th minute finishing a feed from Meshema Charles (Arendelhill Castries, St. Lucia/Robert E. Fitch) & Jean-Gardy Derineau (Valley Stream, NY/Valley Stream North). The Knights would remain on the offensive and finished with an 11-6 shot advantage in the second stanza, and Dario Cruz-Sepulveda (Guadalajara, Mexico/Thomas Jefferson Institute) made two of his six total saves to preserve the clean sheet — his fifth of the season.
With his seven goals on the weekend, the league's leading goal scorer Sy netted his 27th of the season and was named Tournament MVP.
Berkeley will await their seeding for the six-team tournament and SUNY ESF, ranked tied for No. 6 in the coaches poll, and Five Towns, ranked No. 10, will await a possible at-large berth when the field is announced on Wednesday, October 30 on theuscaa.com.
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2019 HVIAC Men's Soccer Championships
Semifinals - Saturday, October 26
#1 Berkeley def. #4 Five Towns, 13-0 | Box
#2 SUNY ESF def. #3 Vaughn, 4-0 | Box
Championship - Sunday, October 27
#1 Berkeley def. #2 SUNY ESF, 1-0 | Box
Tournament MVP
Amadou Sy | Berkeley | Sophomore | Forward | Dakar, Senegal
Tournament & Regular-Season Champions
Berkeley College
Tournament Runner-Up
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
