Senior striker #JENNIFER ALBUJA# (Union City, NJ/Hoboken) is the NJCU women’s athlete of the week for the second week in a row and the 10th time in her Gothic Knight career after being named the New Jersey Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week for the third time in her career following a magnificent three-game stretch last week. During the week she netted seven goals and 14 points, including the double-overtime game-winner in the conference opener against William Paterson University as the Gothic Knights won three times last week to improve to a school-record 8-0-0. It is the best start to a season and the longest winning streak in program history.
Albuja, who now leads the club in goals (12), shots (48) and shots on goal (31), and ranks second in points (27) and game-winning goals (2), has now scored twice in golden goal overtime this season.
While posting three multi-goal scoring games during the week, she collected 23 shots, with 18 on goal. Albuja moved into second place in NJAC women’s soccer history with 78 career goals and 169 points in 67 career games.
In a 5-2 non-conference win over College of Staten Island on September 14, Albuja registered her 11th career hat trick. She had nine shots, including eight on goal. Albuja netted the second, fourth and fifth goals for the 72nd, 73rd and 74th goals of her Gothic Knight career.
NJCU came out attacking from the opening whistle, with Albuja nearly scoring on a breakaway 35 seconds in. With the game even at 1-1, Albuja received a centering pass and knocked home a shot down the middle of the target. She added a goal in the 35th minute for a 4-1 lead before scoring on a corner kick set piece in the 57th minute for her third goal and a 5-1 cushion.
In a 3-2 double-overtime win over William Paterson in the NJAC opener on September 17, Albuja scored twice, including a magnificent goal with 2:48 remaining in double overtime. Albuja, who had seven shots (four on goal), notched her ninth and 10th markers of the season, and the 75th and 76th of her career—giving NJCU a 2-1 lead in the 69th minute before winning at 107:12 of OT—for her 14th career game-winning goal.
With the Knights leading, 1-0, Albuja nearly made it 2-0 in the 24th minute when she received a pass on the far left wing and unloaded a shot that rang off the right post before being cleared out by the WPU defense. Albuja also had a near breakaway in the 38th minute.
Then in the second half, just 5:08 after WPU tied the game at 1-1, Albuja headed a header pass thru the legs of a diving Pioneer goalkeeper on the left post for a 2-1 lead at 68:01. The Knights won it early in the 108th minute on a scintillating goal. After a header pass into the box off a throw-in, Albuja ran onto the ball before the WPU keeper could dive on it. Side-stepping the keeper, Albuja knocked a now uncontested left-footed game-winner into the right side netting, setting off a jubilant celebration.
In the third game of the week, a 4-0 road non-conference shutout of SUNY Old Westbury on September 18, Albuja scored her sixth and seventh goals of the week. NJCU put the game away with two goals in just over three minutes. In the 86th minute, Albuja uncorked a shot that was initially stopped by the Old Westbury keeper, before she put away the rebound of her own shot. Then at 88:23, in a goal very similar to the double-overtime game-winner just 24 hours earlier, Albuja received another header pass off a throw-in for a near-range blast and a 4-0 final result. She had nine shots, including six on goal.
Albuja currently leads the NJAC in goals and shots, ranks second in goals per game (1.50), game-winning goals, points, and shots per game (6.00), third in points per game (3.38), and fourth in assists 93).
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