ROCHESTER, N.Y. (September 6, 2015) – Three different players scored goals and two more picked up assists as the Rutgers University-Newark men's soccer team improved to 2-2-0 with a strong 3-1 win over 19th-ranked SUNY Cortland Sunday afternoon in the Flower City Soccer Classic.
The Scarlet Raiders were able to avenge a tough 2-1 loss to the Red Dragons in the second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament, scoring 37 seconds in on a header from senior back
Paul Tarnawski and twice in the early part of the second half.
A day after falling in overtime to 20th-ranked Rochester in a game it controlled from start-to-finish but struggled to score, Rutgers-Newark wasted little time in taking the upper hand. After generating a corner 20 seconds in, sophomore forward
Chigozie Atubi – who had tallies in the team's first three matches of the season – found Tarnawski for a header to put his team on top 1-0. The score was the first of the year for Tarnawski and Atubi registered his seventh point in the team's first four matches.
Senior goalie
Matt Broomall made one save in the first half to keep the Scarlet Raiders in front, ending the match with two, as the Red Dragons finished the contest with a 15-12 margin in shots. R-N put six of its 15 bids on target, compared to just three for Cortland, and Cortland ended with a 5-4 edge in corner kicks.
Much like the first half, Rutgers-Newark scored early in the second, again taking advantage of an opportunity on a set piece. This time around, junior midfielder
Sebastian Gostynski came through with a blast from 40-yards out on a free kick, putting his shot in the upper-right corner at 47:46 to give his team a 2-0 lead.
Rutgers-Newark added insurance 7:07 later when junior midfielder
Hubert Dul found junior midfielder
Anthony DeRisi for a blast from just outside the box. The helper was the first for Dul as was the score for DeRisi. DeRisi's rip – similar to Gostynski's – was deposited in the upper-right-hand-corner.
"We probably just played in the best tournament in the country with four teams from last year's NCAA's and showed our quality," said head coach
Kevin East. "Yesterday's result was unlucky for us, we were in control the whole way and were undone by two opportunities. Today we did a much better job going forward and scored three great goals."
After an extremely grueling opening week of the season in which the Scarlet Raiders played four matches in six days, the team will take two days off before visiting John Jay on Wednesday afternoon for a 4 p.m. showdown. Next weekend (Saturday and Sunday), Rutgers-Newark will host New York University and Johns Hopkins University for the Scarlet Raider Soccer Classic on Alumni Field in Newark.
"We are a young team and still a work in progress, but I saw some positive things this weekend," added East. "We have improved in each game so far, and are moving in the right direction. The effort was fantastic all weekend in difficult conditions and that is all I can ask of the boys."
