One goal was enough for the Brooklyn Italians, who helped their playoff chances with a 1-0 home victory in National Premier Soccer League action at LIU Brooklyn Saturday night.

Thomas Suchecki tallied the lone goal for third-place Brooklyn (13 points), which improved to 4-2-1 in the North Atlantic Conference Division with three regular season games remaining. Stockade FC (8), which is in eighth place, fell to 2-4-2 with two games left in its 10-match schedule.

Goalkeeper Michael Bernardi recorded the clean sheet.

In other area matches of note:

New Jersey Copa FC 3, Hershey FC 0

New Jersey Copa FC (5-1-1, 16) moved within two points of first-place Motown FC in the Keystone Conference Division with a solid victory over seventh-place Hershey FC (2-5-1, 7) at Hershey High School Soccer Stadium in Hershey, Pa.

Anthony Ferrer lifted the visitors into the lead in the 24th minute before Raphael Araujo added a second-half brace in the 73rd and 86th minutes to secure the win.

FC Monmouth 4, Torch FC 0

Fifth-place FC Monmouth (4-3-1, 13) helped its Keystone playoff possibilities with a win over host and ninth-place Torch FC (0-7-0, 0) at Dock Mennonite Academy in Lansdale, Pa.

The top four teams in the division qualify for the playoffs.

Ryan Hammer scored the first his two goals to give FC Monmouth all the scoring it needed. A Torch FC player put the ball into his own net to double the score in the 22nd minute.

The visitors pulled away in the second half as Chase Covello and Hammer found the net in the 56th and 62nd minutes, respectively.

Cosmos B 5, Elm City Express 0

Cosmos B clinched a North Atlantic playoff berth with a 5-0 triumph over the defending NPSL champion Elm City Express at Hofstra Soccer Stadium in Hempstead, N.Y.

Bledi Bardic, Wojciech Wojcik, Darwin Espinal, Danny Szetela and Ivan Berterame scored for the division-leading Cosmos B (8-0-0, 24) as Elm City (8) fell to 2-3-2.

For the full story about Cosmos B’s victory, visit:

 

THE CLINCHER: Cosmos B qualifies for NPSL playoffs with 5-0 win

 

Sunday

FC Motown vs. Electric City Shock

FC Motown (6-0-0, 18), the Keystone Conference Division leaders, can clinch one of four playoff spots with a home win over the eighth-place Electric City Shock (0-6-1, 1) at Drew University in Madison, N.J. at 5 p.m. FC Motown, in second place in the NPSL power rankings, has outscored its foes this season, 23-2.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.