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.

“(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.