BLOOMFIELD, NJ – Wednesday evening at Foley Field Bloomfield College took on the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in the 'Battle of the Bears' and the home team came out victorious, 2-1. The non-conference match-up featured a scoreless first half and an action-packed final period.
 
The regional victory improved Bloomfield's overall record to 9-2-1 and gave them their best start to a season since 2010 while NYIT dropped to 6-6-1 with the setback.
 
The game under the lights at Foley Field began with a light rain as the teams left their vans for play but by the time the second half rolled around, the heated play had dissipated the droplets in the sky. In the 56^th minute of play the NYIT goalie, Jonathan Rico ran up to the top of the box to handle a ball in the air between one of his defenders and a Bloomfield attacker but the ball popped away from the trio and Julian Keso (Helsinki, Finland) benefited with his first goal of the season as he laced a one-timer into the vacated net.
 
NYIT waited nearly twenty minutes to find the equalizer but at the 74:54 minute-mark, Jorge Sariego took a feed off a corner kick from Krishen Patel and buried it into the net past senior keeper, Jovan Stanojkovic (Pancevo, Serbia) and knotted the score at, 1-1. The energy on the field was electric and the crowd cheered on the teams as the game played on. The home team felt the momentum swinging in their favor as they continued to press the visitor's goal looking for a clear opportunity.
 
During the 80^th minute, Nicholas Calabia (Palisades Park, NJ) created that opportunity after a long ball from defender, Adrian Smart (Mandeville, Jamaica) put the Bears top striker in position for a shot that Rico saved but the deflection allowed Bloomfield to stay on the attack. Calabia gathered the ball and made beautiful 360-turnaround and fired another shot that struck an NYIT defender in the hand inside the box setting up a home team penalty kick. 
 
Head Coach, Didier Orellana sent his trusted freshman, Regsan Watkins (Cape Town, South Africa) to collect his 6^th goal of the season and secure the regional win for Bloomfield. Watkins left no doubt, sliding the ball to the keepers' right into the net for the go-ahead penalty-shot goal. Stanojkovic finished out the game with just two saves and the Bloomfield defenders kept NYIT at a distance in closing out the contest.
 
The Bears now set their sites on the Rams from Jefferson University as the teams prepare for their Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) game on Saturday. Jefferson and Bloomfield are currently ranked 7^th and 8^th respectively in the United Soccer Coaches East Region poll and 1^st and 2^nd in the CACC which makes this weekend's 2:30 pm battle a must-see game.
 
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