BABSON PARK, Mass. – Rutgers University-Newark will need to regenerate it's offense against host Babson College in Saturday's opening round if the Scarlet Raiders are to advance in the NCAA Division III Championship.
 
After out-scoring its opponents 44-7 during a program record 14-match winning streak, Rutgers-Newark managed just six goals while going 1-3 in its last outings to stand on a 15-5-0 ledger entering the 61-team playoff.  The Raiders fell to Rutgers University-Camden, 3-1, in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) semifinals last week to stall their drive toward the first conference championship in history.
 
Babson (17-5-0) has put together six straight victories which include a 3-match run to the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) title.  The Beavers have allowed just three goals during the streak.  Babson, which earned an automatic bid to the tournament with a 2-1 win over WPI in the league title match, garnered its sixth NCAA berth in the last seven years under veteran head coach Jon Anderson and the program's 25^th berth overall.
 
Rutgers-Newark earned its second consecutive at-large bid to the championship – and the second in program history.  Last November, the Raiders fell to Roger Williams College, 3-1, on Brandeis University's Gordon Field in Waltham, Mass., in Rutgers-Newark's first national playoff effort.
 
The Raiders and the Beavers square off at 11 a.m. on Saturday in temperatures which are predicted to be in the 20s before Cortland State (14-4-1), an at-large team which reached the title match in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC), and Neumann (10-8-2), the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) winner, battle at 1:30 on the pitch at Hartwell-Rogers Field on the Babson campus.  All matches will be carried on LiveStats and streaming video.
 
Rutgers-Newark features a deep and talented roster which produced the NJAC Goalkeeper of the Year in junior Matt Broomall and six other All-NJAC performers.  Edgar Abreu, Raphael Araujo, Pat Holliday and Diego Moraes were named to the conference first team while Charlie O'Connell and Hubert Dul earned second team notice.
 
Araujo and O'Connell have combined to amass 31 goals and 11 assists to pace a Raider attack which has out-scored its opponents, 53-22.  Fourteen Rutgers-Newark players have notch goals this season.  Broomall, Holliday and Moraes have led a defense which has allowed just 22 goals and 183 shots.
 
The Falcons are constructed around solid defense and the scoring talents of senior midfielder Justin Laurenzo.  Babson, like the Raiders, has allowed just 22 goals with junior goalkeeper Stephen Donato (11-3-0) registering a fine .89 goals against average.  The Falcons have out-scored opponents 44-22 behind Laurenzo who has recorded 15 markers – including eight game winning goals.
 
Cortland has been to the NCAA playoffs 19 times in program history, the last time in 2008 when the Dragons reached the second round.  Neumann earned their third automatic bid to the championship.
 
The second round champion advances to the sectionals on November 22 and 23 with the potential of getting two-time defending NCAA Champion Messiah (19-0-1) in the bracket.  The Falcons won an automatic qualifier berth with a 4-0 Commonwealth Conference win over Lycoming College on Saturday. Messiah has 18 straight appearances in the national championship playoff and has claimed five of the last six titles.