Daily Archives: October 3, 2022

Slider, Sports

Knights Soccer improve to .500 with a win over Holyoke

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On Saturday, Oct. 1, the NECC Knights defeated Holyoke Community College three goals to one.  

I interviewed NECC Men’s Head Coach Eusebio Marote before the game. He mentioned to me, “usually we had their number the past couple of years, couple wins, but this year it looks (like) they had a different team, they just tied Roxbury not too long ago 3-3. They (are) going to be a competitive team so I think they’re going to fight, they’re going to work hard and yeah we (are) just going to try to match their level of intensity. We are at home hopefully that will help us in our advantage as well and you know go from there, “ he said.

I asked coach Marote if it was an advantage or a disadvantage for the Knights that they haven’t played for a week ?

“I think it’s a little bit of both definitely. I had some guys injured but it definitely helps for recovery and we prep a lot this week, we played a lot and went from there you know, he said.

Holyoke had the ball first to begin the game.

The Knights had two offsides the first eight minutes of the game.

Sam De Amorim of Methuen scored the first two goals of the game for the Knights.

Knights soccer against Holyoke
Knights soccer against Holyoke Photo by Editor-in-Chief/ Sports Editor Jose Rodriguez

“(De Amorim) is definitely huge for us. Last year when we recruited we expected for him to do this stuff for us and it’s something that we needed for last season. So he has been doing what he’s got to do, he is our type of guy and we go from there,” Marote said after the game.

De Amorim scored what would have been the third goal of the game, which would have been the score three to nil, with a hat trick, but the official waived the point off because the call on the field was offside. The goal did not count and the score remained two nil in favor of the Knights.

The Knights were up 2-0 at the half.

I interviewed De Amorim after the game. “It is really important, the other team when you win a half like that and the other team just tends to not believe as much, ”he said. “And then what happens with their team they had their heads down all the time for the second half and we were winning three nil. Unfortunately we got scored on but that didn’t affect us a lot so it was a really important win for us right now,” he said.

The Knights had three corner kicks while Holyoke had four. The Knights had nine shots on goal while Holyoke had three. The Knights also had three offside while Holyoke had none.

The Knights started the kick for the second half.

51 minutes into the game one of the Knights player kicked the ball and it hit right in the front of the face of the Holyoke goaltender. The trainer came and the goaltender was removed out of the game.

Johnathan Diaz of Methuen scored to made it 3-0 Knights.

On the 69  minutes of the game the referee give a yellow card to Knights goaltender Anhuar Ramos Garcia of Nashua, N.H, and a player of Holyoke as well.

Later on during the game Ramos Garcia made a nice save for the Knights, preventing from Michael Grochowski of Westfield from scoring.

On the 78 minutes Caden Hebert of Easthampton scored for Holyoke to make it 3-1 Knights as the shutout was over with just 17 minutes left.

In the second half the Knights had two corner kicks, Holyoke had none. The Knights had eight shots on goal and Holyoke had five. The Knights only had one offside in the second half, Holyoke had none. Both team had at least one  yellow card in the final 45 minutes of the game.

Slider, Sports

Knights Volleyball loses to Bulldogs in Charlestown

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On Thursday, Sept. 29, NECC Knights lost three sets to none against Bunker Hill Community College for a conference division game in Charlestown.

The Knights lost the first set 25-18, they lost the second set 25-21 and they lost the third set 25-19.

 The game was scheduled for 6 p.m. but the league changed it to 6:30 p.m. start time and the game officially started at 6:33.

The Bulldogs started off scoring the first three points of the game, a spike by Caroline Burns of Haverhill made sure that the Knights had their first point in the first set.

The Knights were looking for a comeback in the first set but it wasn’t enough as the Bulldogs defeated the Knights 25-18.

In the first set they were serving errors, spiking out of bounds and I felt they was not a lot of communication. Those mistakes caused the Knights to lose their first set.

After the game I interviewed NECC Women’s Volleyball head coach Mike Pelosi of Haverhill.

“Yeah I agree, one of the challenges for this group is just consistency and I mean serving I felt part of that was momentum and in rhythm we got to get kind of into a rhythm kind of get comfortable I think they were little intimidating by the crowd but just the consistency. We worked and it’s a challenging for me as a coach. I’m going to work with the assistant I may do some research solving this issue is the consistency piece. Take a breath before you serve do it well in practice and we do it for a little bit in the game and we stopped. Gets here attack position we do it will in practice and we do it good for a little bit in the game and then we stopped. Call the ball, same situation when you set the back row who ever is setting when you set the back row call the specific hitter because then it will avoid a communication problem in our end…” he said.

In the second set, few spikes by Burns put the Knights up early in the game.  

Knights facing Bulldogs in the road
Knights facing Bulldogs in the road Photo by Editor-in-Chief/ Sports Editor Jose Rodriguez

“Yeah, she was I love working with Caroline she always hustle and she set that internalization piece she does that great. You can see it as a coach when were doing drill I give her feedback and suggestion you can tell you can see their body language immediately puts it in practice and I love that and that’s why I think she is good as good she is. That’s why I think she continue to progress I’ve seen her progress a lot during the last month, so I am not surprised that she is killing it in a game,” Pelosi said.

Unfortunately the Bulldogs tied the game and coach Pelosi wanted a time out but it wasn’t granted by the officials.

The Knights were looking for a little come back, which they seemed to be achieving. The Knights were up 21 to 19, they just needed four more points to win the set.

Instead the Bulldogs went on a 6-0 run to finish the second set to defeat the Knights 25-21.

The Knights in the third set had an encore performance of Kathleen-Perez-Flores of Lowell scoring the first seven points in the third set while she was serving. On Tuesday, Sept. 27 against Quinsigamond she scored the first nine points to begin the second set.

Despite the Knights going on a 7-0 run the Bulldogs they just never gave up the Bulldogs were on a 5-1 run against the Knights.

It got pretty intense the Knights were eventually down for a few points but it was really close in the game.

The referee was explaining something to coach Pelosi. After the game he told me what the officials was saying to him “I wasn’t going to bring that up but since you ask that was another example of not doing the basic. We been running the same lineup this is at least four games with the same line up. The only changes we had, we had Heather (Walsh) serving sometimes but I think she done that for three games know. So, I think is three games with this exact same lineup and we screw up the line up the wrong person serve in free point and you know I think it was 19-21 that could’ve gone either way absolutely and you know we gave away a free point that something I didn’t cover as a coach because I thought that we had it down so as you probably know the momentum piece,  we fought well for most of the game and in that situation thinks like that can be critical in a tight game.  

The Knights eventually lost the third set 25-19 and got shutout by the Bulldogs three sets to none.

Slider, Sports

Knights volleyball defeat Wyverns in three sets

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On Tuesday Sep. 27, the NECC Knights defeated Quinsigamond Community College Wyverns three sets to none. In the Sports and Fitness Center in Haverhill Campus.

The game was scheduled for 6 p.m. but the league changed it to 6:30 p.m. start time and the game officially started at 6:33.

The Knights won the first set 25-4, they won the second set 25-10 and the third set 25-12.

The Knights started the game aggressive, they had a few runs in the first set 7-1, 14-2 and a 18-3 run. The Knights completely embarrassed Wyverns in the first set as they won the set 25 to 4.

Knights captain Kathleen Perez-Flores of Lowell was serving and scored the first nine points to begin the second set.

Knights volleyball in a match against Wyvers
Knights volleyball in a match against Wyverns Photo by Editor-in-Chief/ Sports Editor Jose Rodriguez

“I’m well, yeah I was a little tired, I’m not going to lie I’m old. So I get a little tired but we played a very good game and we got the run that we needed to get and when we serve we will get runs,” she said.

The Wyverns had no chance to beat the Knights on Tuesday evening as the Knights were on a 21-7 run in the second set and it was enough to beat the Wyverns 25-10 and have a command two sets to none lead as the Knights were one set away to blank Wyverns.

The Knights were looking to defeat the Wyverns on back to back games as on Saturday the Knights went on the road to Quinsigamond and defeated the Wyverns three sets to none.

The Knights never lost their focus and were always in strong command as the Knights started the third set where they left off the first two sets. The Knights were on a 6-1 run and a 14-5 run as they defeated Wyverns in three straight sets.

After the game NECC Women’s Volleyball head coach Mike Pelosi of Haverhill said “I think it was a combination of things. I think we were communicating better, positioning was better in this game and definitely serving. I think the crowd realized that we were doing some serving committing the specific spots. I think we’re doing some of the fundamentals well. I think that our moral was high, that’s why we saw, I think the fact that we were up in score our main players feel better by themselves and that confident boast (helped them) to play a lot better,” he said.