EWING, N.J. (September 15, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's soccer team suffered a tough 4-3 overtime loss at The College of New Jersey Saturday afternoon in the New Jersey Athletic Conference opener for both sides.
 
Rutgers-Newark drops to 3-3-1 overall and 0-1-0 in the NJAC, while TCNJ improves to 7-0-0 overall and 1-0-0 in the conference. The Scarlet Raiders – who brought a four-match unbeaten streak into Saturday's contest – will look to get back to their winning ways Wednesday night when they welcome non-conference foe Albright College to the Brick City for a 7:30 p.m. start.
 
Saturday's match was a back-and-forth affair with each team coming back from deficits.
 
The Lions opened the scoring in the 28th minute when Nick Sample scored his fifth of the season thanks to assists from Ryan Santos and Ryan Vazquez.
 
The TCNJ lead evaporated in an instant as the Scarlet Raiders found the equalizer 53 seconds later in the form of a goal from freshman Franco Catania. Sophomore Joshua Breton-Jones assisted on the play as Catania was able to score from the left side. The assist was the second of the year for Breton-Jones with Catania picking up his sixth score in just seven career games.
 
Catania pushed Rutgers-Newark ahead 2-1 with his fourth goal in two outings when he capitalized on a through-ball into the box from fellow rookie Pape Taha. The goal was Catania's seventh of the year, and Taha was credited with a team-high third assist.
 
Like the Raiders did when they went down early, TCNJ answered quickly, tying the score at 2-all with 4:25 left in the first half of play. Ryan Santos was credited with the marker which was his fourth of the year.
 
The second half was intense and featured play all over the pitch, but neither team could find the back of the net for most of the period. That changed when Rutgers-Newark took a 3-2 advantage with 7:10 remaining in regulation. Sophomore Ariel Parada delivered a through-ball into the right side of the box, and Taha was able to chase it down and score his second of the season. Parada posted his first assist of 2018 on the play.
 
Unfortunately, the hosts found the equalizer with 4:40 on the clock as Ethan Mueller scored for the first time this season.
 
After the Lions' marker, neither team generated another chance, and the squads went into overtime. In the first extra period, only one shot was taken, but early in the second, TCNJ scored the game-winner with Vazquez heading in a cross from Michael Maltese.
 
TCNJ ended the match with a 24-15 margin in shots and a 12-7 edge in shots on goal. Rutgers-Newark took four corners compared to three for the Lions, and freshman Christian Andrach was credited with eight saves in goal for the Scarlet Raiders.