Three members of the Community College of Rhode Island Knights Men’s cross country team traveled to Franklin Park in Boston, MA to compete at the Suffolk University Invitational Saturday. Having his best race so far in the Knights’ racing jersey was Gavin Kearney (Coventry) who ran a season-best time of 35 minutes 47.0 seconds to place 213th. Kearney has showed steady improvement the entire season culminating with this season-best effort. The first finisher for the Knights was Dylan Ouillette (Warwick) who ran an excellent time of 35:18.1 to place 208th. Ouillette has been the first Knights’ finisher in each meet he has competed in for CCRI.  Brandon Bun (Pawtucket) also had a very nice race running a time of 38:24.6 to place 225th.

Head Coach Gregg Cornell commented after the race, “The three athletes ran well on the course and show great improvement physically and mentally as the season marches on.”

The next meet for the Knights will be Saturday Nov. 2nd when they travel to Holyoke Community College in Holyoke Ma to compete in the NJCAA Division III Cross Country National Championship Meet beginning at 10a.m. Lady Knights get two hat tricks on sophomore day

The CCRI Lady Knights soccer team hosted the Bulldogs of Bunker Hills Community College to the CCRI Soccer Complex in Lincoln for a Region XXI interleague match. It was also 2019 Lady Knights Soccer Sophomore Day where their four sophomores played in their final home match. The sophomores honored were Captain Ariana Douglas (East Greenwich), Lailah Insisiengmay (Woonsocket), Maddie Brassard (Pawtucket) and Veronica Lopez (Providence). The Lady Knights defeated the Bulldogs 8-0. With the victory CCRI improved to 6-3-1 overall and 3-0-1 in Region XXI play

The Lady Knights dominated the game from the opening whistle though it took a few minutes to tally their first goal but once they did score they did so frequently. There were limited scoring opportunities for the Bulldogs which led to a clean sheet for CCRI. It was the fifth shutout of the season for the Lady Knights defense anchored by goalkeeper Brassard and helped greatly by defenders Juliana Capraro (Foster), Adriana Lima (Pawtucket) and Brianna Jarrett (Westerly) as well as defensive midfielders Douglas and Insisiengmay.

With the defense putting forth another stellar effort the offense authored their own version of “anything you can do I can do better” by scoring eight goals which included two hat tricks and a player scoring her first goal of the season. Lady Knights’ leading scorer McKenna Leahy (Warwick) played her role marvelously by scoring four goals with two assists. This was Leahy’s third hat trick of the season as she also tied a career-high with four goals on the day. The four goals and two assists bring her season totals to 14 goals and 10 assists and 38 total points. The other half of the dynamic duo Giulia Marsella scored a career-high three goals for her first hat trick of the season while adding two assists. Marsella’s big day brings her season totals to 12 goals and five assists for 29 total points on the season. Freshman Aryssa Hunt (Coventry) also made her presence felt on the pitch by authoring her first goal of the season to cap the 8-0 victory for the Lady Knights.  

Head Coach Jim McGirr commented after the match: “Couldn’t have asked for a better result on Sophomore Day for our four sophomores: Ariana Douglas, Maddie Brassard, Lailah Insisiengmay and Veronica Lopez. We created plenty of opportunities in the first half where the game essentially could have been over but our finishing let us down a bit, which we discussed at the break. We created the same number of chances in the second half but were able to finish twice as many opportunities as in the first half. Defensively we were solid again, a total team effort leading to our 5th clean sheet of the season. Thankfully we have a week off before our next match which will help us get a couple of injured players back to the game day roster.  

The final regular season match for the Lady Knights was played on Wednesday when they traveled to Bristol Community College in Fall River, MA for a Region XXI interleague match. The results were not available at press time.