York Advances to CUNYAC Semi’s on Penalty Kicks
Box Score
JAMAICA, NY— The York College men's soccer team advanced to its fifth consecutive CUNY Athletic Conference semifinal in dramatic fashion, defeating John Jay College in penalty kicks in the quarterfinals held at York College Wednesday afternoon. After a scoreless regulation and overtime, York came out on top, 3-1, in penalty kicks thanks to great goalkeeping by keeper Pierreson Pierre-Louis.
During penalty kicks, John Jay (6-9-3) got off to an early lead when Raymond Sanicola converted his shot and York's Khadim Kebe hit the post on his. However, it was all York from there as Pierre-Louis made three diving stops in a row to hold John Jay to just one goal. York's Wilmer Vasquez and Menard Millus each converted their penalty kick in the next two rounds and then Richard Amponsah clinched the victory in the fourth round.
Regulation and overtime saw a number of missed opportunities for each team. Late in the first half, John Jay's Steven Castillo was all alone on a breakaway but his shot sailed wide. Then early in the second half, the Cardinal's Rachidi Amadou had a breakaway of his own but John Jay keeper Kemar Brown made a nice stop on the play to keep the game scoreless.
The second half of the match was marred with rough play as the Cardinals picked up five yellow cards and the Bloodhounds added two. York's McLaney Moise picked up his second yellow card of the contest in the 60th minute forcing the Cardinals to play a man short the rest of the way.
It looked like that would be the break the Bloodhounds needed to break the tie, but once again they failed on a number of scoring opportunities and the game went into overtime.
In overtime, Amponsah nearly gave York the golden goal in the 108th minute when he found himself right in front of the net with an open look. Brown came up with the biggest save of the game—up to that point— and sent the match into penalty kicks.
The Cardinals (6-8-3), who are the defending CUNYAC champions, will now face Hunter College on Saturday at 9:00 p.m. at the Metropolitan Oval in Maspeth, NY. It will be a rematch of the last two CUNYAC Championships matches. Live stats for the match are available by clicking here. Directions to the Met Oval can be found here.
