NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Matthew Cherry, fresh off his release from the Israel Defense Forces, scored three goals including the game-winner to lead the blue-and-white to an 8-6 win over New York Athletic Club on Saturday night, at Asphalt Green on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Cherry recently completed his 18 months of military service and the 2014 World Team captain is expected to lead Israel as the program seeks to secure its first medal this summer at the quadrennial European Championships in Budepest.
NYAC opened the scoring at 2:45, but it would be their only lead of the evening as Israel burst to a 4-1 advantage and never trailed.
A three-goal run in the second half brought the match to 5-5 and 6-6 ties, however, the Israelis chipped ahead and were able to run out the clock for one of the program’s biggest wins to date.
Kyle Bergman, Aaron Mathias, Maxx Meyer, Noah Miller and Joshua Offit each chipped in a goal, while Bryan Hopper (two assists) and Ari Sussman (one assist) also cracked the scoresheet.
Eric Schneider (40:00, 8 saves, 2 GA) and Sam Grinberg (40:00, 6 saves, 4 GA) split time in goal; Grinberg was credited the win.
Israel is back in action against the reigning MLL Champion New York Lizards on Sunday at the US Merchant Marine Academy’s Brooks Stadium in Kings Point, NY. Faceoff is slated for 10am.
Additional caps – David Better, Casey Cittadino, Joshua Cittadino, Adam Crystal, Adam Fishman, Harrison Freid, Matt Hayes, Adam Hull, Mark Jutkowitz, Andrew Kruter, Eric Loreaux, Andrew Pollack, Charlie Ross, Adam Sands, Benjamin Smith, Scott Weiner