Against a driving rain that came down in sheets and ferocious winds, the College of Staten Island men’s soccer team advanced to the CUNYAC Postseason Tournament Semifinal round by virtue of an 11-0 drubbing of Medgar Evers College as part of quarterfinal play at the CSI Soccer Complex. The top seeded Dolphins will next play on Halloween at Brooklyn College against either Baruch College or John Jay College at 2pm in semifinal play. CSI improved to 9-8-1 overall, while the Cougars finalized their campaign at 2-14-1.
CSI wasted no time applying pressure in the first half. With the wind at their backs, the team threw numbers into the box, and just 2:21 into the game, Marcin Kilm received a through-ball from Philip Lefkowitz to make it 1-0. A little less than five minutes later, winger Emmanuel Agboola delivered a perfect cross that found the waiting boot of Brayan Evo, who calmly tapped home the shot past MEC keeper Dave Henry to make it 2-0.
From there the game slowed a bit, but the Dolphins continued to dominate possession. With just over 15 minutes to play in the first half, CSI would erupt again, this time tallying three goals in a span of eight minutes to pull ahead 5-0 by the break. Evo started by scoring his second goal on another feeder from Agboola at 28:22. just two minutes later Agboola got one of his own when he laced a driving shot off of Evo’s give, and the Evo followed by completing his first-half hat trick with yet another Agboola assist.
CSI seemingly had the game in-hand from there, but the Dolphins added six goals with many of its reserve players earning minutes in the second half. Edric Tapia started the second half scoring with a penalty kick goal, and then Rami Garah connected from a Nermin Kurtesi helper. Then, it what was easily one of the highlights of a rain-soaked second half, CSI senior Daniel Raffo, normally a goalkeeper was able to header in a Kurtesi corner kick. Antonio Lynch, another backup keeper, then did the same thing two minutes later. To cap the scoring, Kurtesi followed up his assist hat trick with a goal of his own.
For CSI, the 11-0 win was there biggest over Medgar Evers in their history and their sixth-straight win over the Cougars. It also marked CSI’s largest CUNYAC postseason win in history, and their 11 goals scored are the most in CSI single-game history, besting the former mark of 10, last achieved in a 10-0 win over John Jay College in 2005.
“It was a little sloppy with the conditions but at the end of the day we talked about executing and today we did,” said Head Coach John Tardy.
The coach admitted to being pleased with the result but the euphoria will be short-lived. “For us, it’s done, it’s over and behind us and now we have to get ready for Baruch or John Jay,” he said. “We will need to stick with our game plan and continue to execute and find ways to put balls in the back of the net.”
CSI will next play on Saturday at 2pm at Brooklyn College. Their opponent will either be No. 4 Baruch College or No. 5 John Jay College. That game is being played at 6pm this evening.
