Garden City, New York - Despite a ferocious second-half rally on Tuesday night, the BMCC men's soccer team fell on the road to NJCAA Division III No. 5 nationally ranked Nassau Community College, 2-1. The Panthers drop to 4-3 (4-3 Region XV) while the Lions improve to 4-1-2 (3-0-2 Region XV).

Nassau Community College opened the scoring in the first minute when Kyriakos Katehis found the back of the net on a feed from Joseph Lopez and Marco Russo. The Lions would extend their advantage to 2-0 on a marker from Marco Russo in the 12th minute. The Panthers came close to getting within one in the 15th minute, but freshman Salim Ana's (Bronx, New York) shot rang off the crossbar. Classmates Sebastien George (Brooklyn, New York) and Aboubacar Barry (Brooklyn, New York) also had opportunities to get the Panthers on the scoreboard in the 27th and 29th minute, but Bryan Hernandez denied both opportunities. Nassau kept their lead 2-0 going into the halftime break despite being outshot by BMCC 8-6 in the first half.

BMCC had two early chances to get on the board in the 49th and 54th minute, but George and Anas couldn't come through. The Panthers finally cut the deficit to one, 2-1, in the 58th minute as sophomore Idrissa Sanogo (Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast) buried one in the back of the cage on a feed from Barry. Nikola Ivkovic (Belgrade, Serbia) and Anas had two more opportunities to tie it up at two. However, Hernandez will hold them off, denying an Ivkovic header in the 62nd minute and Anas on a scoring chance in the 78th minute, allowing the Lions to escape with a 2-1 victory.

The Panthers outshot the Lions 8-5 in the second half and 16-11 overall.

Hernandez picked up the victory for Nassau, making a game-high nine saves, including five in the second half, while El Momar Coundoul (Bronx, New York) took the loss and made six stops in the contest for BMCC.

The Panthers will regroup and look to knock off another ranked opponent when NJCAA Division III No. 8 nationally ranked Kingsborough Community College comes to Pier 40 on Saturday, September 28, at 1 p.m. for a Region 15 battle. For more information, visit the BMCC Men's Soccer Schedule.  


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