The Mohawk Valley Men's Soccer team won their first NJCAA Region III Championship in school history. The Hawks took on the Lazers of Onondaga Community College in the Northeast District A Championship game. The Hawks faced early adversity less than 10 minutes into the game when the referee pointed to the penalty kick spot. Hawks goalkeeper Jaime Mata came up with a huge save on the penalty kick to keep the game 0-0. Roughly 35 minutes into the first half, Jamie Mata was given a straight red card for a foul that occurred outside of the box. The Hawks were forced to play with 10 men for the remainder of the game. The Hawks were able to see out the rest of the first half and head into halftime 0-0. After a few tactical changes, the Hawks and Lazers continued to battle but neither team could find the back of the net. The game would head into 2 golden goal 10-minute overtime periods where each team was scoreless. The game would head into penalty kicks to declare the champions. 

Breno Guimares who came in for Jamie Mata after his red card was the difference maker in the penalty kick shootout. Breno Guimares made 3 out of 5 saves in the penalty kick shootout to secure the victory for the Hawks. Marco Paolo Saavedra, Andrew Chumukh, and Lucas Beja would each finish their penalty kicks. 

"We gutted it out." Stated Head Coach Dominic DiMaggio. "I don't know how much more adversity we could've possibly faced. Gave up an early PK, a red card to our goalkeeper, 5 stiches to one of our midfielders who left the game in an ambulance, it's incredible but shows the character of these guys. We were confident at half-time that we could keep OCC scoreless with a few tactical changes. We have some special talents within this group that can make up for being down a man. Breno was huge in PKs and guys stepped up and finished their opportunities. We were on the other side of this last year when we lost in PKs. Guys were very prepared for this moment." 

The Hawks punched their ticket to Gastonia, North Carolina where the final 8 teams in the country will battle it out for an opportunity to be crowned as National Champions. The Hawks received the #3 seed and will take on #6 seeded Rowan County Gloucester from New Jersey in the opening round. Kickoff will be at 6:30PM and can be live-streamed via the NJCAA Network: https://www.njcaa.org/network/landing/index 

Breno Guimares was named MVP of the Region III tournament. Fasaikou Jammeh, Andrew Chmukh, and Alieu Barrie were named to the All-Tournament Team.