BOX SCORE
CAMDEN, NJ…In a match-up to determine a share of third place in the New Jersey Athletic Conference standings, Rutgers University-Camden was outshot 13-9, but went ahead on an own goal early and led 2-0 at the half, en route to a 3-0 upset of #24 ranked
New Jersey City University, in an NJAC game on Sunday at Rutgers-Camden Community Park. The game was a makeup from a Saturday weather-related postponement.
Rutgers improved to 14-3-1 overall (5-2-1 NJAC) with one league remaining, winning for the fourth straight time. It was also the Scarlet Raptors' fourth win this season against an opponent that has appeared in the national rankings during the season. Rutgers-Camden is 4-2-1 in seven games against ranked teams. Camden leads the all-time series, 17-8-6 and is now 3-0-2 versus NJCU in the last five meetings.
The loss for NJCU (10-4-2, 4-3-1 NJAC) drops the Gothic Knights into fifth place in the league standings. The Knights, entering ranked 24th overall by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and third in the NCAA Metro Region, likely will fall out of the national poll for the first time in five weeks.
If NJCU does not defeat nationally #3 ranked and undefeated Montclair State University on October 29 in the regular season finale and sixth-place The College of New Jersey is victorious over Rutgers-Newark that evening, NJCU, which was the defending regular season NJAC champions and No. 2 in the league preseason coaches' poll, will fall to the #6 seed in the six-team conference tournament.
The Knights controlled the early action before making a costly mistake in the back. In the 10th minute, Raptor sophomore midfielder Shane McGrory (Stratford, NJ/Sterling)sent a cross from the right wing into the box. In an attempt to clear the ball, a Gothic Knight back inadvertently headed it into his net for an own goal at 9:35, giving Rutgers-Camden a 1-0 lead without taking a shot. It was the second consecutive game in which NJCU gave an opponent a 1-0 lead with an own goal.
Senior defender A.J. O'Malley (Westmont, NJ/Haddon Township), one of four Camden players honored on Senior Day, scored his second goal of the season at exactly 25:00 to give Rutgers a 2-0 halftime lead. On just Camden's second shot of the game, McGrory slipped a pass between two defenders in the box, where O'Malley scored from short range.
Rutgers-Camden tacked on a second-half goal on a 30-yard direct kick by senior forward Andrew Dorsey (Mount Laurel, NJ/The King's Christian School) at 85:47, firing a shot into the upper right corner over a defensive wall. It was his 30th career goal and eighth of the season, making him only the fifth player in program history to reach that plateau.
While NJCU had few dangerous scoring chances in the game, the Knights did outshot the Raptors in the second half by a 9-3 margin. But freshman keeper
Tim VanLiew (Deptford, NJ/Deptford)made seven saves on the way to setting a Camden record for goalie victories in a season, breaking the previous single-season school mark of 13 wins by
Jim Skene in 1981. He recorded his seventh shutout of the season. NJCU sophomore
ANDRE VIOLA (Clifton, NJ/St. Joseph's Regional (Montvale) had one save.
In a rematch of the 2007 NJAC championship game and NCAA Sweet 16, NJCU will visit Montclair (17-0-0, 8-0-0 NJAC) on Wednesday, October 29 at 8 p.m.
—www.njcugothicknights.com—
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Team Stat Comparison
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NJCU
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RU-Camden
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Score
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0
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3
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Halftime
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0
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2
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Shots
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13
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9
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Shots On Goal
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7
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4
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Saves
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1
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7
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Corner Kicks
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3
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8
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Fouls
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13
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21
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Offsides
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0
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1
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Caution Cards
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1
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2
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