Before the Riverhawks men’s soccer team headed to New York to play in the national tournament, the squad won nine games and lost four in the regular season.

In the regional playoffs, the team went 2-0 and finished 0-2 in nationals. The Riverhawks ended their season on Nov. 9 after losing in the first round of the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III playoffs 5-0 to the Genesee Community College Cougars.

Still, Riverhawks head men’s soccer coach Nick Cosentino said the team played well this season.

“I think the guys really bought into some of the principles of play that [assistant] coach Drew [Belcher] brought in,” Cosentino said. “And it really helped us develop confidence. It’s really a fun style of play. So I give a lot of props to [Belcher] for bringing them along and the guys bought into it. It was a real big reason for our success.

The Riverhawks have gone five straight years with a winning record. 

Midfielder Leyton Calzado led the Riverhawks with six goals and tallied 14 points in the regular season. Goalkeeper Edgar Garcia finished the season with a 1.71 goal average and turned down 49 saves.

Cosentino said the team was fortunate with injuries.

“It was good to have a whole season when you look back at COVID-19 [and] all the interruptions that happened there,” Cosentino noted. “Normally we would have some type of distraction or a bunch of injuries but we really didn’t for the most part.”

Left midfielder Davis Bosley, a first-year engineering student, said this past “regular season was really good because around here in our region we were the best. We went to those games thinking like we’re better than you; we’re going to beat you. Everybody [on the team] knows that we’re going to go out and prove them.”

Bosley was second in scoring with five goals during the season.

Midfielder Nehemias Rubio said his favorite moment of the season was scoring the game-winning goal against the Prince George Community College Owls on Oct. 29 to win the NJCAA Region 20 championship tournament.

“There’s no better feeling than that,” Rubio, a first-year business student, said. “Those are the moments that you live for as a soccer player. Those are the moments that you remember forever.”

Midfielder Lizandro Tuchez agreed.

“Just seeing Nehemias score [and] just seeing everyone celebrate [and] go crazy … was the best moment,” Tuchez, a second-year business administration student, said.