Knights Get Back to Business

Written by: Drew Bellinger

Essex, MD— Knights take over on the road. The CCBC Essex Knights find themselves back in the win column again following a 5-1 road win on Tuesday over the Hagerstown Community College Hawks, improving to 6-2 on the season. After facing two tough opponents, the Knights got back on track with this win.

Despite the game being scoreless throughout the majority of the first half, the Knights came out on fire and let out a barrage of shots on the Hawks keeper. Bartu Yakkan eventually opened up the scoring for the Knights in the 34th minute with an unassisted goal. His first goal of the season put the Knights ahead 1-0 going into halftime. This changed the dynamic of the game moving forward.

Early in the second half Yakkan and the Knights struck again, scoring two goals in the first ten minutes of the second half. Both goals were assisted by Angel Vargas-Hernandez, giving Yakkan a hat trick on the day and extending the Knights' lead to 3-0.

The Hawks would respond in the 60th minute when MJ Ribis found the back of the net. This cut the deficit to 3-1, but it was not enough to spark any sort of comeback.

Just two minutes later, Victor Kanarek scored an unassisted goal to make it 4-1 for the Knights. Shortly after, Alexis Maldonado added a fifth goal in the 64th minute, adding some insurance and essentially putting the game out of reach for the home team Hawks.

The Knights dominated throughout the course of the game, outshooting the Hawks 19-6 and taking 9 corner kicks compared to Hagerstown's 1. Both the offensive and defensive attack from the Knights was very efficient and only seemed to get stronger throughout the match.

The Knights' win improved their record to 5-2 overall and 4-0 in conference play, while the Hawks dropped to 4-5. Their match versus Allegany College of Maryland was cancelled, and so they now look ahead to next weeks match on Tuesday where they will travel to take on the 3-2 Cecil College Osprey's.