SPARKILL, N.Y. – Looking to conclude their two-game East Coast Conference road stand on a strong note Sunday afternoon, the Queens College men's soccer team matched up against the Spartans of St. Thomas Aquinas College at Spartans Field.
Four Knights led the offense with junior
Harry Cooke (Market Drayton, England) recording a first-half brace, while the duo of sophomore
Jason Udo (Bronx, N.Y.) and graduate student
John Morell (New Britain, CT) recorded late goals in each half to go with red-shirt freshman goalie
Thanasis Shehadeh (Nicosia, Cyprus) recording a career-best seven saves as the Knights earned a 4-0 shutout victory over the Spartans.
With the win, Queens improves to 9-4-2 overall, and 6-0-1 in ECC play on the year. Sunday's win over the Spartans earns Queens their second straight road victory over STAC.
With their victory over the Spartans, head coach
Frank Vertullo and the Knights have clinched the program's first-ever Regular Season title and the number one seed to the ECC Men's Soccer Tournament and a first-round bye.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Queens would open the game as the aggressors as they quickly put the Spartans under pressure recording two shots in the opening five minutes of play.
In the sixth minute of play graduate student
Carlos Almeida (Sao Paulo, Brazil) would deliver the game-winning assist as he found Cooke to put Knights up 1-0.
As Queens continued to apply the pressure, the Spartans would tally their first shot on goal but Shehadeh would up to the task with a timely save in the 12
th minute of play.
The Knights would double their advantage in the 16
th minute of play as rookie
Kleverson Bolanos (Kew Gardens, N.Y) delivered a through ball for Cooke for a right-shot shot from 18-yards into the bottom right corner for a 2-0 lead.
The Spartans would attempt to cut the Knights' lead in half as they earned three corner kicks and recorded three shots with two shots getting blocked and one hitting the right post in the 19
th minute of play.
Shehadeh would keep the Knights' 2-0 lead intact recording back-to-back saves in the 31
st minute of play as the Spartans continued to counterattack.
As Queens continued to negate the Spartans' attack, Udo would give Queens a commanding lead of 3-0 just before halftime as he battled past two defenders before delivering a left shot into the bottom right corner.
The shots total would slow down in the second half as both teams combined for seven shots.
As Shehadeh matched and recorded a new career-best in a single game with seven in the second half, sophomore
Fortune Uzo (Valley Stream, N.Y.) would deliver a through ball for Morell to beat the Spartans goal in the 88
th minute of play as Queens scored their fourth goal of the game as the Knights earned a 4-0 victory and clinched their first ECC Regular Season title in program history.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Cooke paced the offense with a team-high four points with his fourth brace of the year.
- The junior recorded his team-leading 16th and 17th goal of the year and extended his points tally to 40 on the year.
- Udo recorded his second goal of the year to extend his points tally to six.
- Morell notched his first goal as a Knight for his first two points of the year.
- Almeida recorded his team-leading seventh assist of the year to extend his points tally to 11 on the year.
- Bolanos notched his first assist of the year to extend his points tally to three.
- Uzo recorded his second assist of the year to extend his points tally to four.
- In goal, Shehadeh recorded a career-best seven saves on the afternoon and earned his seventh shutout of the year.
- Queens outshot STAC 13-11 and held an 8-7 shots on goal advantage.
- Sophomore Miguel Soto Gonzalez (Madrid, Spain) and Cooke combined for six shots and three shots on goal.
- While four other Knights combined for seven shots and five shots on goal.
NEXT GAME
The Knights conclude the regular season with back-to-back home games starting on Wednesday, Oct. 30 beginning with non-conference play as they match up against the Yellow Jackets of American International College. Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
For the latest news on Queens College Athletics, follow the Knights at queensknights.com or via social media on Facebook (Queens College Athletics), X (Formerly Twitter) (@QCKnights), and Instagram (qcknightsny), men's soccer (qcmsoccer).
