2003 CUNYAC/Brine Community College Men's Soccer Championship

Bronx Needs Extra Time To Repeat

Bayside, NY - In a rematch of the last year's final, Bronx Community College defended their title by topping Borough of Manhattan Community College, 4-1 in penalty kick shootout to win the CUNY Athletic Conference Community College Men's Soccer Championship in a match played at Queensborough.

After a scoreless tie in regulation and 110 competitive minutes overall, the first championship on the CUNY calendar was decided in a shootout, with the Broncos (2-0) scoring on all four of their chances as Edgard Avila (Bronx, NY), Sankung Senera (Bansul, Gambia), Marvin Ellis (Bronx, NY) and Ndidi Osunde (Bronx, NY) tallied. BMCC (1-2) failed on their first two attempts, as Bronx keeper Adeyemi Alabi (New York, NY) stopped two of the three shots he faced including one from his counterpart, BMCC keeper Afrim Lajqi (Bronx, NY).

"Defense makes the difference in a game like this,” said Bronx head coach Lew Lattari. "Adeyemi was tremendous filling in at goal. After we lost [Andrew] Buckle (the 2002 CUNYAC Tournament MVP), we weren't sure how it would play out. But this team is very tenacious; they hung in there and relied on the defense. We will definitely improve as the season progresses.”

Following an evenly played first half in which neither team had strong chances to score, BMCC had two best second-stanza chances stopped by Alabi (six saves). A quiet first overtime ensued, then there were fireworks in the second overtime. One minute in, Panthers freshman forward Quincy Peters (New York, NY) sent a shot off Alabi's fingertips and off the crossbar. Two minutes later, Bronx missed an opportunity when Lajqi came out off his line to pursue Omar Lynch (Bronx, NY) on a breakaway, but Lynch sent the ball wide of the goal. Lajqi, the keeper in the short end of the score last year, had only two saves in the game.

"We knew they would come right at us this year after losing last year's game,” said Alabi, the Tournament Most Valuable Player, who was a defenseman last season for the Broncos. "But we did a very good job of covering our mistakes today and not giving up the golden goal [in overtime].”

Both teams should be strong contenders in Region XV of the National Junior College Athletic Association this season, where the top eight teams qualify for the playoffs at the end of October.

In the consolation match that preceded the final, Kingsborough Community College topped Hostos Community College 3-1, to get the team's first win of the season.

KCC (1-3) led off 3:30 into the contest when Ricardo Burgher (Brooklyn, NY) scored on a bicycle kick from 15-yards out to the upper left corner of the net on an assist by freshman Gregor Wrobel (Brooklyn, NY). Just over eleven minutes later (14:20 mark), Burgher picked up a deflection and struck a 20-yard blast into the top left corner to provide the halftime score, 2-0.

Hostos (0-2-1) got on the board with just under 16-minutes remaining when sophomore Jonathan DeLeon (Bronx, NY) received a cross from freshman Mitchel Gomez (Bronx, NY) and beat Wave goalkeeper Karim Ahmed to the net for the score. Ahmed, a freshman from Brooklyn, had four saves on the day.

The Wave locked up the game with a penalty kick by freshman Nicolas Kendy (Brooklyn, NY) after classmate Nicholas Shand (Brooklyn, NY) was taken down in the box with one minute left in the game. Hostos keeper Celso Flores (New York, NY) had eight saves in the loss.

Manhattan/Bronx Community College Advance To Saturday's
CUNYAC Men's Soccer Championship

Bronx, NY - Manhattan Community College and Bronx Community College will meet at 1:00, Saturday afternoon at Queensborough Community College, after both squads won their semifinal matches in the CUNYAC Community College Championship on Thursday afternoon.

Manhattan C.C. blanked Kingsborough C.C. by a score of 4-0 as Jason Francis, Shane Lescene, and Jouhan Daoud all found the back of the net. Keeper Afrim Lajqi had six saves between the pipes. Bronx C.C. scored all three goals in the first thirty minutes of play in their 3-1 victory over Hostos Community College. BCC received tallies from Johan Clarke, Marvin Ellis and Omar Lynch and Guillermo Monsalve scored a late goal for Hostos.

Kingsborough and Hostos will meet at 11:00 am in the consolation contest, which will also be played at Queensborough.