NEWARK, N.J. (October 5, 2016) – Freshman Fabio De Sousa had five points behind two goals and an assist as the Rutgers University-Newark men's soccer team improved to 12-2-0 with a business-like 3-0 shutout of Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham Wednesday night.
 
The win is the sixth-straight for the Scarlet Raiders who were wearing gold laces in their spikes in support of the Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer initiative.
 
Rutgers-Newark will look to continue playing well when it hosts New Jersey Athletic Conference rival Stockton University Saturday night at Alumni Field. Kick-off is slated for 7:30 p.m.
  
The Scarlet Raiders had several chances in the game's first 20 minutes, generating four corners and five shots. Sophomore Timothy Farias had a great look that missed the far corner of the cage by less than a foot, and De Sousa's bid on a free kick went just wide.
 
The game changed in the blink of an eye as the Scarlet Raiders grabbed control with a pair of lightning-quick goals separated by just 29 seconds.
 
The first score came from De Sousa who stole an outlet pass, dribbled several times before shooting across his body from the top of the box and putting his shot in the lower-right corner for his eighth of the season.
 
Then, at 24:34, De Sousa fed sophomore Zachary Gillespie on the left side of the box where Gillespie touched several times to create space before scoring in the lower-right corner. The marker was the second of the year for Gillespie and the assist was the seventh for De Sousa.
 
R-N would take that 2-0 edge to intermission, also finishing the first period with a 9-4 margin in shots and a 4-0 lead in corner kicks.
 
Early in the second, senior Dylan Elias led De Sousa for a great opportunity but the shot went wide, and with 33:50 left, De Sousa went coast-to-coast on a counter, crossing back to Elias who saw his one-timer saved by the FDU goalkeeper.
 
Freshman goalkeeper Andres Medina made a pair of solid stops with a little more than 26 minutes left in regulation, and the lead moved to three goals when Torres fed De Sousa in the left side of the box for a score. The assist was the fourth of the year for Torres, with De Sousa notching his ninth tally.
 
Rutgers-Newark ended the match with a 21-11 margin in shots, a 7-5 edge in shots on goal and a 9-2 advantage in corner kicks.
 
Medina made four saves before giving way to classmate Matt Cabrera who made one stop of the night. The combined shutout is the team's fourth clean sheet in the last four matches as Rutgers-Newark has not allowed a goal against in more than 417 minutes of match time. R-N has seven total shutouts this year.