After suffering a tough loss in their Jewish Community Center of Bayonne’s Indoor Soccer Junior Division season opener, the Knights (0-1) hoped to rebound against the Dragons (0-0). Unfortunately, the Knights walked into a buzzsaw as the Dragons’ Brayden Cotter bulled in five straight goals in the first seven minutes. Assisting on the Dragons’ scoring barrage were Akshat Thakur, Aditya Barran, and Daniel Mena. After leading his squad out to a 5-0 advantage, Brayden Cotter shifted his sights and assisted Aditya Barran on his first goal of the season to make it 6-0, Dragons.
The Knights “Little Big Horn” afternoon continued as the Dragons’ Alexandra Soliman and Josh Belber assisted Daniel Mena and Brayden Cotter on two more goals to balloon the Dragons’ lead to 8-zip. Down by a ton, the Knights didn’t implode; instead they shuffled the deck and put Steven Pereira, Harsh Easwar, Giovanni Russo and Da’Mien Taylor into the defensive rotation while freeing up Joyce Gabrael, Chris Ballance, and Andrew Sprague to work their offensive skills. The move paid dividends as Sprague assisted Ballance on a goal-scoring rocket to make it 8-1, Dragons.
The final 10 minutes belonged to the Dragons’ offense as Brayden Cotter continued to impress all by notching his seventh and eighth goal of the bout while Drew Radil closed out the scoring with his first goal of the season to lift the Dragons out to an 11-1 advantage. Besides their outstanding offensive output, the Dragons showed equal defensive prowess as goaltender Drew Radil and sweeper Marcelino Soliman ruled the defensive zone as the Dragons rolled to an 11-1 victory.
The Junior Division Players of the Week for week one were: Offensive Player of the Week – Brayden Cotter, Dragons; Defensive Player of the Week – Drew Radil, Dragons; Teamwork/Leadership Player of the Week – Chris Ballance, Knights.