NEWBURGH, N.Y. (September 12, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's soccer team continued its recent run of good form with a barrage of second half goals to defeat Mount Saint Mary College, 3-0. The Scarlet Raiders improve to 3-2-1 on the season while the Knights drop to 3-3.

R-N was propelled to victory by a big night from rookie Franco Catania who had a part in all three goals, scoring a brace and adding an assist to bring his season totals to five markers and two helpers for a squad-best 12 points. Classmate Joe Alba netted the other tally for his second of the fall.

Freshman keeper Christian Andrach made two saves to secure his third consecutive clean sheet, R-N's fourth, and run his individual shutout streak to nearly 357 minutes. MSM's sophomore goalie Tyler Rapp, who entered after halftime, suffered the loss while making five stops. Classmate Jakup Myrtja had one save in the first period.

The Raiders opened the scoring in the 64^th minute following a flurry of attempts over a four minute span that had the visitors clearly on the front foot. The strike came out of nothing as Catania decided to try his luck from 35 yards away from goal. The freshman delivered, beautifully curling his shot around the keeper and into the net for a 1-0 lead.

Rutgers-Newark doubled its lead in the 71^st. Just 43 seconds after junior Bryan Rodrigues saw his effort saved, Catania played facilitator, laying a pass off to Alba inside the box who drove his strike across goal to the far post making it 2-0.

Catania capped the scoring in the 79^th, tacking on another insurance goal after sophomore Kevin Ocampo slid a through ball behind the defense. Catania ran onto the pass and slotted his shot just inside the left post, putting an exclamation point on a stellar second half.

The Scarlet Raiders outshot the Knights 18-5, including 9-2 in attempts on target, while edging the hosts in corner kicks 4-3.

In the first half, neither side generated many attacking opportunities. The teams combined for just three shots, with two going on frame, and three corner kicks.

The Knights produced the first attempt in the 6^th minute when they earned a corner but it wasn't until the 10^th minute that the initial shot of the contest, by rookie Matthew Wyant, was saved. A little over a minute later, sophomore Adonis Scotland pushed Newark's first chance wide while freshman Pape Taha forced a stop in the 22^nd minute with a strike of his own that led to the visitors' first corner. The Scarlet Raiders earned another corner in the 39^th but could not produce a shot off the ensuing kick.

Since a tough opening weekend in Texas, Rutgers-Newark has outscored its opponents 20-0, going 3-0-1 in that span with four consecutive clean sheets.

The Scarlet Raiders look to carry their positive momentum into the team's New Jersey Athletic Conference opener on Saturday at TCNJ, scheduled for a 1 p.m. start.