NEWARK, N.J. (October 25, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's soccer team – ranked 12th by D3soccer.com and 19th by the United Soccer Coaches – rolled to a 6-2 New Jersey Athletic Conference win over visiting William Paterson University in front of a great crowd on Senior Night at Alumni Field.
Rutgers-Newark ends its regular season 18-2-0 overall and 8-1-0 in league play. The Scarlet Raiders will next play Wednesday night, November 1 in the NJAC semifinals against a to be determined opponent. William Paterson drops to 3-4-2 in the conference and 10-5-3 overall.
Prior to the match, Rutgers-Newark honored seven seniors suiting up in the Brick City for the final time in the regular season;
Chigozie Atubi,
Carlos Castro,
Hubert Dul,
Isaiah Kuris,
Giuseppe Pollicino,
Arek Szoldrowski and
Alex Torres.
Rutgers-Newark came out of the gate on fire, pouring in four goals in less than 25 minutes. Atubi scored the first, sophomore
Fabio De Sousa scored the next two and Atubi tallied again at 24:42 to make it a 4-1 game.
The Paterson goal came via a penalty kick to tie the game at one apiece at 16:44, but other than that, the first half was all Rutgers-Newark.
Dul assisted Atubi's first goal at 9:44, springing him free down the right seam before Atubi touched several times prior to drilling a low bullet into the lower-left corner for his seventh of the year.
De Sousa recorded his 16th of the season thanks to assists from Dul and Atubi, Dul getting the play started with a through-ball down the right side and Atubi with a cross to De Sousa who one-timed an absolutely perfect shot into the left side.
Less than five minutes later junior
Stefano Muniz chased a ball down in the box, stopped and chipped a cross to De Sousa who came out of nowhere to score his 17th of the season to put Rutgers-Newark up 3-1.
Then, just 1:22 later, Muniz fed Atubi for another one, all-but sealing the win with 19:18 left in the first half. It was Atubi's eighth goal and Muniz was credited with fourth assist.
The Pioneers did not quit in the second half, pulling within two goals (4-2) after Kyle Adams tallied for the seventh time this season, but just 1:09 later, Dul scored one of his own thanks to a nice touch from freshman
Adrian Velazquez. On the play, De Sousa hammered the crossbar on a free kick, Velazquez controlled the rebound and tapped back to Dul who deposited his shot in the lower-right.
R-N's final marker of the game was also a thing of beauty as juniors
Breno Lustosa and
Timothy Farias set up Torres. Lustosa touched in the middle of the field to Farias at the top of the box, Farias controlled and immediately fed Torres into the left side of the box. Torres then put his shot across the mouth of the goal and into the lower-right for his second score of the season.
Sophomore goalkeeper
Andres Medina made five saves to earn his 18th win as Rutgers-Newark ended with a 22-13 margin in total shots, a 15-7 edge in shots on goal and a 5-1 lead in corner kicks.
More information on the NJAC Tournament will be posted on www.RutgersNewarkAthletics.com as it comes in. Fans are also encouraged to follow @ScarletRaiders and @RUN_Soc on twitter for the latest.
Notes:
-The 18 wins tie a regular-season record for Rutgers-Newark.
-The two regulation goals against are the first time all year Rutgers-Newark has allowed more than one goal in regulation.
-R-N scored seven goals against CCNY, but six goals in the second-most for the Scarlet Raiders this year.
-The Scarlet Raiders finish the regular season a perfect 10-0-0 on Alumni Field.
