RINDGE, N.H. – On Saturday (Sept. 2) afternoon, the Queens College men's soccer team kicked off their 2023 season with a road trip to Rindge, New Hampshire against defending Division II National Champions Ravens of Franklin Pierce University at Sodexo Field.
With a tough road test to begin the season, the Knights would be in for a battle especially as seven student-athletes earned their first career start in Knights color.
It would be debuts for the sophomore trio of goalie
Jake Balme (Sheffield, England), defender
Andreas Charalambous (Limassol, Cyprus), forward
Harry Cooke (Market Drayton, England), rookie trio of defender
Tommy Wagner (East Northport, N.Y.), midfielder
Juan Gomez (Brentwood, N.Y.) , forward
Jason Udo (Bronx, N.Y.), and graduate student and defender
Leoluca Diefenbach (Saarland, Germany).
While the trio of sophomores midfielder
Eyob Gaffigan (Walkersville, MD), and forward
David Akpan (Brentwood, N.Y.) and freshman midfielder
Andrew Johnson (Oakdale, N.Y.) made their debut off the bench.
Match Highlights
- In the 22nd minute, Gomez recorded the lone shot for the Knights.
- Ravens opened the scoring in the 39th minute to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.
- The second half would see the Knights open more on the offense as they earned a 3-1 advantage on corner kicks.
- With a back-and-forth defensive battle in the second half a total of eight yellow cards would be raised.
- Two late goals from the Ravens put the match out of reach as the Knights fell 3-0 against the defending champions.
Next Match:
Head Coach
Frank Vertullo and the Knights open a three-match homestand beginning on Wednesday (Sept. 6) evening as the Golden Falcons of Felician University visit Flushing. Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
Follow the Knights:
All home games will be live-streamed on the
ECC Sports Network and fans can follow along on
live stats as well.
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).
