New Jersey City University Athletics

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JERSEY CITY, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Senior striker JULIA CASERES (Union, NJ/Union) netted a goal and two assists—the 27^th and 28^th of her three-year Gothic Knight career to become the program's all-time leader in helpers—and five different New Jersey City University players netted goals as NJCU rang up Purchase College, 5-1, in the weather-delayed final game of the 2011 NJCU Liberty Cup. The contest was played at an alternate home field, Cochrane Stadium at the Caven Point Sports Complex.
 
NJCU remains perfect on the season, improving to 5-0-0 and the Knights open a season with five consecutive wins for only the second time in school history and the first time since starting the 2008 campaign at 6-0. NJCU leads the all-time series against the Panthers (1-1), 3-0, with a 13-2 goals differential.  The Knights owned a 28-4 advantage in shots, including 15-1 in the first half.
 
Caseres, junior forward KELSEY PLASKON (Clifton, NJ/Queens of Peace), senior defender NICOLE SARICA (Linden, NJ/Linden), sophomore center midfielder BRIANNA TAYLOR (Linden, NJ/Linden) and senior striker JENNIFER ALBUJA (Union City, NJ/Hoboken) all scored. Taylor added an assist on the first goal of the game for a three-point effort and Albuja bagged the 71^st goal of her career.
 
Sophomore midfielder KARLA REYES-ABRIL (Middlesex, NJ/Middlesex) and junior midfielder AMANDA SPETHMANN (Wood-Ridge, NJ/Hasbrouck Heights—Wood-Ridge) each had an assist.
 
Purchase's lone goal came with 4:33 remaining in the second half, snapping NJCU's school-record, five-game, scoreless minutes streak at 450:49—nearly 200 minutes more than the previous record of 268:30. Still, rookie goalkeeper BRITTANY HOFFMAN (McMurray, PA/Peters Township) made two saves in the victory and has a meager 0.38 goals against average five games into her career.
 
The Panthers goal was scored by freshman forward Nathalie Lavelanet (South Salem, NY)—her second of the year—with an assist by senior midfielder Ashley Panepinto (North Rockland, NY). Sophomore keeper Kristen Racaniello (Riverhead, NY) made 10 saves in defeat.
 
Caseres, now with 204 career points in 69 games, is closing in on becoming the all-time leading scorer in NCAA men's or women's soccer history in the state of New Jersey. Only three players are ahead of Caseres all-time in New Jersey—current U.S. Women's National Team captain Christie Pearce Rampone, who had 212 points in 80 games for Division I Monmouth University from 1993-96, Valerie Barnhart of Stevens Institute of Technology with 207 points (2001-04, 82 games), and Michael King of Fairleigh Dickinson University with 206 points in 91 games from 1982-85.
 
Caseres, the reigning New Jersey Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week, broke the program's career assists mark of 26 established by current assistant coach Katie Feehan (2004-07).
 
After several near strikes by the Knights in the first half, NJCU finally got on the board at 31:44 of the period. Taylor delivered a thru ball from 20 yards out to the right side of the box and Caseres uncorked a top-shelf shot for a 1-0 lead. It was her sixth goal of the season and Taylor's third assist.
 
NJCU scored a pair of scintillating goals to end the first half with a 3-0 lead. First, in a rare double assist at 41:05, Spethmann made a long throw in from the right sideline into the box where Reyes-Abril and Plaskon combined for a double header—with Reyes-Abril heading it to the left post, before Plaskon headed home her second goal of the year for a 2-0 lead and the eventual game-winning goal.
 
Then, with the final 10 seconds of the first half winding down, Sarica won the ball from a defender on the left wing, dribbled past several Purchase defenders on the left of the box and rifled home her first goal since October 11, 2009 inside the left post with 0.7 seconds on the clock.
 
NJCU extended the lead to 5-0 with two goals in a span of 2:13 early in the second period. At 48:03, Caseres won the ball on the right sideline and slid a pass to Taylor, before unleashing a wicked top-shelf left-footed shot over the leaping opposing keeper. The assist was the record-breaking 27^th of Caseres career.
 
Then, at 50:16, the A-C connection of Albuja-Caseres teamed up for the fourth time this season. Caseres delivered a pass onto the feet of Albuja for a breakaway. Albuja made an elusive move to sidestep the charging opposing keeper before calmly tapping home a shot into the now empty net.
 
NJCU also struck a post and crossbar in the game. Purchase's goal came at the 85:27 mark after Panepinto pushed a thru ball on the ground from the right wing to allow Lavelanet in on a breakaway chance.
 
NJCU will next host the College of Staten Island in the 'Bayonne Bridge Series' on Tuesday, September 13 at 4 p.m.