Herkimer, NY (November 12, 2025) – The sixth seeded Northern Essex Community College men's soccer team saw their national championship hopes stopped on Wednesday night as they fell to Bergen County Community College by a 3-1 final at Wehrum Stadium on the campus of Herkimer College. The loss drops the Knights to 12-4-1. They will conclude their season on Thursday evening at 6:30pm in a consolation bracket game against seventh seeded Raritan Valley.
In an evenly played game for most of the 90 minutes, the Knights jumped on the board first at the 12:30 mark when Lucas Cantelli (Lowell) collected a lose ball in the offensive half of the field and took it to the top of the box where he found Wesdra DaSilva (Gloucester) who put the ball to the right of the outstretched keeper.
The lead was short lived as Bergen tied the game 75 seconds later on a floating knuckleball from the left side that floated over Knights keeper Dylan Gavin (Methuen).
The teams would go to the locker room tied at one with Bergen holding a slight advantage in shots at 7-5.
The game would remain even until the 73rd minute when Bergen was able to take a 2-1 advantage and put a header into the top corner off of a corner kick. The Bulldogs doubled their lead in the 79th minute with the Knights pressing for an equalizer, they were able to have a numbers advantage and beat Gavin to the right corner for the final goal of the game.
The Knights had a couple chances of their own in the closing minutes to tighten the game, but the Bergen keeper was able to recorded three saves in the closing minutes to preserve the win.