NEWARK, N.J. (September 19, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's soccer team bounced back from a tough Saturday loss with a 5-0 triumph over visiting Albright College Wednesday night at Frederick Douglass Field in Newark.
Kelvin Opoku scored the game-winner late in the first half, and the Scarlet Raiders poured in four second-half goals for the final margin.
Rutgers-Newark improves to 4-3-1 with the win, while Albright drops to 1-5-1 in defeat. The Scarlet Raiders will return to conference play Saturday night in the Brick City when they host Stockton University at 7:30 p.m.
A slow start left the Scarlet Raiders looking for a spark and late in the first half they got it on a counter. After a Lion corner, Opoku was able to break free from the Albright defense streaking the final 50 yards while holding off a pair of defenders. The Scarlet Raider sophomore – who is rounding back into form after injury – was able to calmly place his shot in the lower-right corner for his first career goal which also ended up being the game-winner. The assist went to freshman Ahmed Moawad who tapped to Opoku at midfield.
In the second half, it was all Rutgers-Newark as the hosts dominated field position and possession over the game's final 45 minutes.
Sophomore Adonis Scotland scored his second of the season to put Rutgers-Newark on top 2-0 at 58:05, chasing down a long pass from freshman Brandon Parada and hammering home the bouncing ball into the far-right corner from a challenging angle.
The third Newark score came at 81:20 when freshman Franco Catania tallied his team-high eighth of the year, putting away a picture-perfect feed from sophomore Joshua Breton-Jones who led Catania into the right side of the box beautifully.
Freshman George Angelides made it a 4-0 game in the 85th minute and his tally was assisted by both Breton-Jones and sophomore Ariel Parada. Breton-Jones delivered a through-ball into the box, and Parada was able to chase it down and deliver a precision cross to Angelides for the second goal of his career.
Parada then put a cap on the scoring, taking a short pass from Angelides and tucking an incredible shot into the upper-right-90 from 27 yards out. The goal was the third of the year for Parada and the assist was the second of the season for Angelides.
Freshman goalkeeper Christian Andrach earned the shutout win in goal for Rutgers-Newark as the Raiders now have turned in five clean sheets in their last six outings. Andrach was credited with one save, while his counterpart Brendan Hanratty was credited with eight stops in the loss.
Rutgers-Newark ended the match with a 28-6 margin in shots and a 14-1 advantage in shots on goal. All six Albright shots came in the opening 45 minutes, and the Lions ended with a 6-4 edge in corners.
Saturday night's kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. against Stockton and admission is FREE for all Rutgers-Newark students, staff & faculty with a valid ID.
