Essex Knights Mens Soccer Continues Domination

Written by: Drew Bellinger

Essex, MD—  Another week, another defensive shutout for the #4 ranked Knights of CCBC Essex. The Knights find themselves in the win column again following a 4-0 road win yesterday over the Frederick Community College Cougars, improving to 2-0 on the season. The dominance continued both offensively and defensively.

While the score was not as lopsided as it was in last week's match against the College of Southern Maryland, the win over the FCC Cougars was not nearly as close as the score reveals. The Knights started with a first half assault, taking seven shots on goal before transfer sophomore forward Aidan Hidassy was able to find the back of the net on a back post run from a cross by returning sophomore Taichi Nogami, and put the Knights up 1-0 in the 39^th minute. 

The Knights opened the second half swinging, taking another four shots within the first 13 minutes. Transfer sophomore Bartu Yakkan was taken down in the box and resulted in a red card to a Cougar for their second yellow card of the match. Sophomore defensive back Jose Joya put it past the keeper on a penalty kick to increase the Knights lead to 2-0. Later in the half, Knights midfielders Yutaro Aikawa and Nogami both scored within 20 seconds in the 80^th minute, making it 4-0 Knights. Defensively, they played a sound second half, only allowing one shot. The Cougars struggled heavily to generate momentum throughout the match despite a considerable size advantage. The Knights had 15 shots on target in the match, and allowed no shots on frame to the Cougars.

Fundamentally, the Knights played exceptionally well, creating opportunities and taking advantage of what the Cougars defense gave them. The Knights continued to pound the opposing goalkeeper with shots, with freshman midfielder Phillipe Oliveira being just one out of ten players with a shot. Having depth on offense that can produce is crucial to any teams' success but having defensive players that can also contribute to the offense will set a team apart from others. Joya was once again a huge contributor in the offensive production in the win versus the Cougars, scoring one goal on two shots.

We spoke to Joya about his production after the win and he had the following to say, "I'm here to win a National Championship so we've got to get the job done one way or the other. Whether it's me or my teammates scoring, as long as we win, that's all that matters." The mindset of the Knights is clear, winning a National Championship is the only thing that will satisfy this team at the conclusion of this season.

Among other things, maintaining this offensive and defensive consistency throughout the season will enable them to be successful and ultimately achieve their goal of bringing a National Championship home to Essex, MD.

Heading into Thursday's match against the Prince George's Community College Owls who are currently 1-0 after beating CCBC Catonsville, the Knights look to continue their dominance and come out on top at home.