Champions! Lady Bears Take Home HVWAC Soccer Title

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's soccer team defeated Berkeley College, 2-0, in the Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference (HVWAC) Championship to take home the league title in the program's inaugural season on Sunday afternoon at the College of Staten Island.

The game was tightly contested with neither side having many scoring opportunities and shots hard to come by.  The Lady Bears ended up outshooting the Knights 11-5 for the game.

St. Joseph's (6-4-2) was led by Tournament MVP, junior defender Daniela Semilia (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney). Freshmen Pamela Chernyakhovsky (Brooklyn, NY/Leon M. Goldstein) and Daniella Valencia (Corona, NY/Bayside HS) each contributed a goal towards the victory. In awards ceremonies after the game, all three were named to the All-Conference Team, recognizing their efforts during the regular season. 

The action went back-an-forth with neither team having a clear advantage until the 14th minute when Chernyakhovsky stole the ball from outside the goal box and took a shot from 35 yards out that found its way past the goalkeeper to put St. Joseph's on the board first. The rest of the half would produce very little scoring opportunities and the Lady Bears went into halftime leading 1-0.

The second half began just as the first ended with defense prevailing with the conference title on the line. St. Joseph's produced a good scoring chance in the 63rd minute when junior Cynthia Gambino (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) had a breakaway off a through ball from midfield but the shot was saved by Suzanne Lian who started the second half for Berkeley in net.

St. Joseph's withstood the second half charge by the Knights after they took All-Conference honoree and leading scorer Kerryann Haughton out of the goal and put her up front in the second half.

The Knights had their first great opportunity to score in the 71st minute when Ellinor Simonsson had a breakaway set up by Haughton but a nice defensive play by Semilia thwarted the attack.

Berkeley had one last scoring chance in the 83rd minute when Haughton took a pass from Briana Ortega and fired a shot that was saved by junior goalkeeper Nicole Farinella (East Patchogue, NY/Bellport HS).

The Lady Bears sealed the victory two minutes later, when Gambino passed the ball to Valencia who took a shot from the top of the box that found the back of the net for her third of the season.

Farinella made four saves in the win, posting her seventh shutout of the season.

Berkeley (3-3) was led by Haughton who finished with two shots on goal and making two saves in goal in the first half.