September 14, 2024
Lakers Dominate TC3 10-2, Extend September Hot Streak
By Logan Weingartner
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. - The Finger Lakes Community College men's soccer team continued their September dominance, as they cruised to a 10-2 victory over the Panthers of Tompkins Cortland Community College on Saturday afternoon. The Lakers have outscored their opponents 41-2 over the last four games, and this win puts the team at a comfortable record of 4-1-3.
Forward Robin Giesing (Essen, Germany/Gymnasium-Essen-Werden) put his offensive prowess on display all throughout the match, as the reigning NJCAA DIII player of the week contributed a strong statline of 2 goals and 2 assists. One of those two goals came early in the contest, with Giesing striking at the 9' mark to even the score up at 1 goal apiece. Ben Berger (Weil am Rhein, Germany/Kaufmannische Schule Lorrach) would then put the Lakers ahead at the 16' mark on a nifty feed from Joao Antonio Rocha (Sergipe, Brazil/Colegio Master), who later finished the night with a hat trick in the form of assists. Just 4 minutes later, sophomore Sergio Baron (Bogota, Colombia/Liceo Matovelle) would increase the score, finding the back of the net on a penalty kick to give the Lakers a 3-1 lead.
The first half was capped off by goals from both Allan Matheus (Sergipe, Brazil/Americano Batista) and Oriol Guzman (Barcelona, Spain/Institut Marti Pous). Matheus' goal went unassisted, however Guzman's strike came off of a pass from Joao Antonio Rocha, where he found his second assist of the night. The Lakers concluded the first 45 minutes of play with a more-than-comfortable four goal lead, and looked to add onto it during the next half.
The Lakers came out of the gate fast, as it was just 43 seconds into the second half when Robin Giesing added his second goal of the night onto the tally, with it being assisted by Ben Domann (Wuppertal, Germany/Gesamtschule Barmen) – who, 2 minutes later, scored his first goal of the contest off of a feed from Giesing. A quick minute later, Joao Antonio Rocha recorded his first goal of the night, once again off of an assist from Giesing. The Lakers climbed to an eight goal lead at the 53' mark, as Ben Berger nabbed his second goal off of a third assist from Joao Antonio Rocha.
The final goal of the match for Finger Lakes came at the hands of Sergio Baron during the 86' mark, which capped off his impressive 2 goal performance. The strike came off of a feed from Ayden Meleshchuk (Lowville, N.Y./Lowville Academy), who was substituted in just 2 minutes earlier for his first minutes of the match.
Defensively, the Lakers put on a clinic. Stop after stop from players including Austin Wolfe (Farmington, N.Y./Canandaigua), Bernardo Reffiel Del Castel (San Bartolome la Merced), Mark Musembi (Nairobi, Kenya/Rosslyn Academy) and others played a massive part in the victory. Goalkeeper Harry Eastwick (Christchurch, New Zealand/St. Thomas of Canterbury College) had a stellar performance as well, saving 5 of the 7 shots that came his way. Eastwick continues to impress in the month of September, as it was only 3 games ago that he aided in securing a historic 17-0 shutout win over Clinton Community College. Furthermore, 2 games ago, he helped the Lakers to obtain another shutout victory over North Country Community College.
The Lakers will look to keep the hot streak going in their next matchup, where they will travel to Nazareth to take on their JV team on Monday, September 16th at 7:00PM.
