ALFRED, N.Y. — The New Jersey City University men's soccer team continued its blazing hot start to the 2021 season with yet another victory after the Gothic Knights dominated SUNY Cobleskill 3-1 in the first round of the Bryan Karl Tournament, hosted by Alfred University, on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 11. NJCU outshot the Fighting Tigers 30-4, including 16-1 in on-goal attempts, in the win. The Knights now take on D'Youville College in the Championship match tomorrow afternoon, Sunday, Sept. 12, at 2:00 p.m. after the Saints topped the hosting Saxons 3-1 earlier in the day on Saturday.
NJCU (5-0) jumped out to an early lead against Cobleskill (0-2) after a couple on-target attempts in the 15th and 16th minutes were turned away. Then, in the 20th minute, rookie
Jaime Bimboza (Jersey City, N.J./William L. Dickinson) notched his second-career goal, with the assist coming from junior
Christopher Castillo (North Bergen, N.J./High Tech). After a throw-in on the near sideline, Castillo blasted a long cross all the way to the far corner of the box where Bimboza one-timed it past the netminder and in for the 1-0 lead. The Gothic Knights recorded two more on-goal shot attempts in the remainder of the first half from senior captain
Nelson Segovia (North Bergen, N.J./North Bergen) and junior
Ryan Evande (Hackensack, N.J./Hackensack), but after 45:00, it remained 1-0 in favor of NJCU.
Early on in the second half, the Gothic Knights went right back on the offensive and continued to pepper the Fighting Tigers' goalkeeper with shots. Sophomore
Maximo Vargas (Montevideo, Uruguay/The British Schools) started it off early in the 47th as he split the defense, received a pass in the box and had his shot stopped. Then, 10 seconds later, the keeper's outlet pass was intercepted and sophomore
Anthony Salmeron (North Bergen, N.J./North Bergen) ripped a shot from 30-plus yards out that was also saved. Just about a minute later, Bimboza also had a golden opportunity that was sent aside as well.
Cobleskill, despite being silenced offensively most of the afternoon, was able to even it up at 1-1 in the 60th minute with their only shot on goal of the day. However, less than a minute later, the Gothic Knights once again took control. Sophomore
Thiago Duarte (Newark, N.J./Newark East Side) got it started with a corner kick. The attempt went on net and bounced around aimlessly until sophomore
Alvaro Cardozo (North Bergen, N.J./North Bergen) got his foot on it and sent into the back of the net to make it 2-1 — his second goal of the season.
NJCU took three more on-target attempts in the following 12-plus minutes of play before tallying its third and final goal of the day. In the 72nd minute, Bimboza managed to force a turnover in the offensive zone and found Vargas who ripped a shot to the lower right from 25 yards out and beat the keeper to make it 3-1. The Gothic Knights had three more scoring chances, but the game remained at a two-goal margin until the final whistle.
Highlights:
- Bimboza and Vargas led all players in shots on goal with three each, while Bimboza finished with three points on the day.
- Castillo earned his first-career start and played the full 90 for the first time as a collegian. His assist was the first point of his career as well.
- NJCU is now 5-0 for the third time since 2016, having started that year off 7-0 and going a historic 9-0 to start off in 2019.
