The College of Staten Island men’s soccer team broke open a scoreless tie at halftime by scoring three unanswered second-half goals to take a 3-0 win over CUNYAC rivals Brooklyn College.  CSI improved their record to 5-6 overall, and 3-0 in the CUNYAC while Brooklyn dropped to 3-6 overall and 2-1 in the CUNYAC.

Brooklyn started the game off quickly by testing John Gioeli early on a series of quick rushes upfield.  CSI was not as fast to get in their groove as they were having some trouble possessing the ball early on, until Alfonso Castaneda stood over a free kick from 30 yards out and ricocheted one off of the top of the crossbar.  This near goal ignited the Dolphins offense as they picked up their play and started to pressure Brooklyn’s defense.

Horatio Reid intensified the Dolphins’ attack even more when he came on the pitch as just one minute after stepping on the field he scored what looked like to be a goal off of a cross from Castaneda only to be called offside and the goal disallowed, it was the first and only offsides call of the half.

At the half the score remained 0-0 with each team posting six shots with two on goal.  The referee issued one yellow card in the first half to Igor Pacca of Brooklyn College, but Pacca left the game shortly after due to injury and did not return. 

Coach John Tardy must’ve given a very motivational speech at halftime as they Dolphins came out faster than when they ended the half, and began to lean more on their counterattack. That pace led to a goal just 11 minutes in when Daniel Tsygankov found a gap in Brooklyn’s defense and sent a through ball to Nicholas Bacarella who then crossed it into Ilir Papraniku who was wide open at the top of the six and was able to bury it passed keeper Ilya Keygen, which would later prove to be the game winning goal. 

CSI would not take their foot off the pedal as Castaneda received a ball inside the box and was taken out and rewarded with a penalty kick in which Peter Hanna would stand over the spot and tuck it away with confidence to his left side to increase the Dolphins’ lead to 2-0 with a hair over 15 minutes to play.

Bacarella’s day was not finished as he received a ball at the top left side of the 18 when he took one touch and curled a beautiful shot far post where an outstretched Keygen was unable to make the save as that would seal the game for the Dolphins with less than 10 minutes to play.  As Brooklyn pressed, Keygen made most of his four second-half saves late off of feverish CSI rushes.

CSI would finish with 18 shots to 12 for the Bulldogs.  As CSI started to score, Brooklyn’s players started to become frustrated and the yellow cards started to come out as two more were issued to Brooklyn’s players as well as two for CSI.

For CSI it was their first home victory over the Bulldogs since 2008, breaking a string of three-straight home losses to Brooklyn.  It was also the third shutout for CSI within the conference, and the Dolphins advanced to 3-0 in the CUNYAC for the first time since 2004.

CSI will be back in action on Monday, September 29 where they will take on Purchase College in a make-up game at 4:00 pm at the CSI Soccer Complex.