No. 2 Knights Defeat Bears in their First Game of the Tom Bichy Tournament

By Ben Wagner

Rockville, Md. – The #2 ranked CCBC Essex men's soccer team played in their first matchup in the Tom Bichy tournament Friday night, winning 3-0 against Harcum College.

Reflecting on his team's performance tonight, Head Coach Joe Fiedler said "We worry about us more than we worry about other teams. Obviously scoring a minute in really helps." When asked about how he prepared the team for the game, Fiedler said "We knew they were going to hit long balls and try and go over top. We knew it was going to happen, it happened. It's okay, we learn from it. I wasn't unhappy. I thought we had another four or five great chances in the game." 

The game got off to a fast start thanks to Kazuma Ishizuka, who scored goal for the Knights in the very first minute of the game. The Knights then continued to dominate in possession and shots on goal following Ishizuka's goal. It only took until the 19^th minute of the game for the Knights to increase their lead to 2-0. Evan Doten assisted Caleb Pritchett with a great ball up the middle, which allowed Pritchett to beat the Harcum defender and score the Knight's second goal of the game.

Near the end of the first half, Harcum's Silva and Lewis both got yellow cards in the 35^th and 36^th minute of the game, which would prove to be important in the second half. Overall, the Knights dominated the first half in possession and with 11 total shots compared to four from Harcum College.

The Bears came out a little more aggressive in the second half. They started to control the ball better and keep possession longer. The Knights were able to adjust well against Harcum College and began to take control of the game again. In the 58^th minute, Vincent Silva received his second yellow card, which left the Bears with only 10 men for the rest of the game.

This allowed midfielder Toga Katsuma to break out and have some really fast breaks and few more shots. Late in the second half, Kevin Osorio played a beautiful ball down the line for Christian Marquez who was able to finish strong and put the ball in the net for the Knights third goal of the game. The Knights continued their success after Marquez's goal and closed out the game with ease.

Caleb Pritchett reflected afterwards on what he thought of the game today: "I felt good about the game today. It was really high intense. We had extra time to prepare with our game being canceled earlier this week and we were ready for them. Obviously, they were not ready for us."

When asked the sme question, Christian Marquez said "Going into this game we knew what we had to do and we have been preparing for it the past week. I think we came out with everything we had tonight." Even after the Bears got a red card and were down a man, "we just kept going and didn't let off the gas, pressing off the back and doing what we had to do to win the game."

Discussing the teams upcoming match on Sunday against #11 ranked Monroe College, Fielder said "The next game we are going to face a really difficult team. They historically are one of the better teams in JUCO. We just need to come ready to play, that's all."

When asked about having only one day off before there next game, Caleb Pritchett told me "we need to all stay really hydrated and stretch and just enjoy our day off tomorrow before our game on Sunday."

The #2 ranked CCBC Knights men's soccer team will travel back to Montgomery College on Sunday and play NJCAA Division I #11 ranked Monroe College at 2:00pm, which will be their toughest challenge of the season so far.