60 | JULY 14 • 2022 

S

ummer isn’t an off-season for an 
NCAA Division I soccer player.
Elon University defender Ben 
Rosenblatt from Huntington Woods is 
putting in time this summer playing for 
the Oakland County Football Club in 
the USL League Two, a highly respected 
league for players who have aspirations 
of playing soccer professionally.
There are 113 league teams spread 
across the U.S. and Canada. Oakland 
County plays its home games at Royal 
Oak High School.
This is Rosenblatt’s second summer 
playing defender for Oakland County.
“It’s been perfect,” the 2020 Jewish 
News High School Athlete of the Year 
said about his time with the team.
“Playing with them is a great way to 
stay in shape during the summer, and 

the competition is great. Just as good if 
not better than Division I,” Rosenblatt 
said.
Rosenblatt is heading into his junior 
season at Elon, a small private school 
with 7,000 students based in Elon, N.C.
The 19-year-old Berkley High School 
graduate had a breakout sophomore 
season last fall.
He started all 19 games for the 
Phoenix (9-8-2), scored his first colle-
giate career goal (Oct. 26 vs. Radford), 
and was named to the Colonial Athletic 
Association All-Tournament Team for 
his stellar defensive play in the tourna-
ment.
Rosenblatt played in just two games 
and a total of 24 minutes as an Elon 
freshman.
“It took me a year to get acclimated 

to playing against older players,” the 
5-foot-10, 156-pounder said about his 
freshman-to-sophomore transforma-
tion.
“From the beginning to the end of 
last season, I became an entirely new 
player confidence-wise,” Rosenblatt 
said.
It showed in the CAA tournament.
The top four teams in the CAA reg-
ular-season standings qualified for the 
tournament. Elon made it into the tour-
nament for the first time since 2017.
After beating No. 2 seed Northeastern 
1-0 in the semifinals, earning its first 
CAA tournament win since joining the 
league in 2014, No. 3 seed Elon fell 3-2 
to No. 1 seed, No. 13-ranked and tour-
nament host Hofstra (16-1-2) on Nov. 

Ben Rosenblatt of Huntington Woods isn’t slowing down 
after breakout sophomore season at Elon University.
Summer Soccer

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

LEFT: It’s a battle for the ball between Elon’s Ben Rosenblatt (25) and a Duke player during a collegiate game last season. 
RIGHT: Ben Rosenblatt closes in on a Lansing City Football Club player during a game this summer at Royal Oak High School.

TROY SAYLES

OAKLAND COUNTY FOOTBALL CLUB

SPORTS

continued on page 62

