#6 Knights Secure Post-Season Top Seed

Dan Blair

Haverhill, MA (10/21/2024) — The #6 nationally ranked Northern Essex men's soccer team ran their shutout streak to six consecutive games on Saturday afternoon and have held the opponent scoreless over the last 569 minutes of play as they defeated Bunker Hill by a 2-0 result in a battle of conference unbeatens. In the process the Knights improved to 11-2 on the season and sit at 7-0 in conference play with one game remaining.

Jadiel Bomfim (Nashua, NH) recorded both goals for the Knights for the second consecutive match. He opened the scoring in the games sixth minute when Sam Lucena (Tyngsborough) stuck his foot on a cross in from the right corner and his deflection bounced off the goalkeeper onto the foot on Bomfim who drilled the ball home for his 11th goal of the season.

The Knights controlled the action for much of the first half and missed taking a 2-0 lead in the 20th minutes when Nikos Kakavitsas (Athens, GR) drilled the crossbar from 30 yards out.

Bomfim added an insurance goal in the games 53rd minute when he took a long ball sent 50 yards up the middle of the field from Edwin SamMbaka (Paris, FR) and struck the ball into the upper right corner to result in the games 2-0 final score.

Will Paganini (Derry, NH) picked up his 11th win and ninth shutout of the season as he made eight saves and lowered his goals against average 0.54.

The Knights will close out the regular season on Tuesday when they travel to Springfield Tech to take on the Rams at 3:30pm. The Knights will host the semi-final round of the Region 21 Tournament on Friday November 1 at 5:30pm at Whittier Tech High School against an opponent to be determined. Additional post-season information will be posted online when available.