New Jersey City University Athletics

NJAC AWARD PDF

PITMAN, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University sophomore forward RAPHAEL ARAUJO (North Plainfield, NJ/North Plainfield) enjoyed one of the finest offensive weeks in the history of the sport at the institution, scoring eight goals and 16 points in three games, and was honored on Monday as the New Jersey Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week for week two of the 2012 season.
 
The first career award for Araujo comes after he was the clear-cut choice for Most Valuable Player of the 2012 NJCU Liberty Cup, scoring seven of the Gothic Knight's eight total goals in the tournament.
 
Araujo has scored in five consecutive games to start the season—a school record—and his 11 total goals over the first five games of the season are also the most by a player in the 54-year history of the program.
 
The Knights went 3-0 last week and won the championship of the Liberty Cup for the fifth time in six tournaments. He had 20 total shots including 13 on goal. NJCU is 4-1 and off to its best start since 2006.
 
“It's amazing. He's just in a groove unlike any I've been around,” said first-year head coach Patrick Snyder of Araujo's sensational start to the season. “Hopefully he can keep it going over the course of a season. This is an amazing pace, that's for sure.”
 
Araujo has 11 goals and one assist for 23 points in 312 minutes over five games (five starts). The 5-foot-10, 175-pound accounting major has calculated 24 shots this season with 17 being on goal for an incredible .708 shots on goal percentage. He has tallied three game-tying goals, two hat tricks, one first goal and one overtime game-winner in the championship game of the Liberty Cup on September 9.
 
Araujo also has been productive in the classroom. He enters the academic year with the team's highest grade point average and the honor student was a Fall 2011 Dean's List recipient.
 
As of September 10, he leads the NJAC in goals, points, goals per game (2.20) and points per game (4.60) and could challenge for the NCAA national lead in all four categories when they are announced this week. No other NJAC player has more than four goals or 11 points thus far. Araujo also is second in the league in shots and shots per game (4.80)—one attempt behind the leader.
 
In a 3-2 overtime winner against FDU-Florham on September 9, Araujo scored all three goals for NJCU—game-tying goals at the 14:32 and 44:08 marks to tie the contest at 1-1 and 2-2 after the Devils twice had one-goal leads. Araujo had 11 of NJCU's 30 shots, including seven on goal and he won the game just 49 seconds into the second overtime on a beautiful run to the goalmouth off an assist from teammate ANDREW LOPES (Union, NJ/Union).
 
In the opening round, a 5-2 triumph over Keystone College on September 8, Araujo became the fifth different player to score four times in a game (accomplished six total times) and eighth Gothic Knight  to notch at least eight points in a game (done 10 times) in program history. He scored two quick goals at the 10:29 and 12:11 marks for a 2-0 lead, then added markers in the 55^th and 65^th minutes to expand the lead to 5-1. The final goal came on a penalty kick after he was dragged down from behind in the box in a one-on-one breakaway.
 
Earlier in the week in a 2-0 road win over City College of New York on September 5, Araujo gave NJCU a key insurance goal at the 41:50 mark of the first half.
 
“I've just been playing hard, practicing a lot,” Araujo said when asked the difference between his play so far as a sophomore versus 2011 when he scored just twice as a freshman. “Determination is the key. I think the team is closer this year. We feel like a family right now and we're playing our hardest.”