New Jersey City University Athletics

Box Score BOX SCORE

PATCHOGUE, NY (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Senior EDUARDO TEJADA (North Arlington, NJ/North Arlington)  continues to make the case that he might be the best center midfielder in the region. The Gothic Knight co-captain continued to make that case by scoring twice and assisting on New Jersey City University's other goal as NJCU won its 10^th game of the season, defeating St. Joseph's College (LI), 3-1, in a non-conference night game on October 8 at Danzi Stadium.
 
NJCU wins its fourth consecutive game and improves to 10-4—reaching double digits in victories for the first time since the 2008 season (11-5-4). St. Joseph's dropped to 6-8 and had its three-game winning streak snapped. NJCU has won the last six meetings against the Golden Eagles since 2004 and leads the all-time series, 7-1-1.
 
The Knights put 14 of their 19 shots on goal and tallied 12 attempts in the second half, finishing with a slim 19-18 shots edge. St. Joe's led 1-0 at halftime before NJCU tied the game just 1:36 into the second half, and tallied two more in the 74^th and 86^th minutes.
 
Tejada had never had a multi-goal game in his career before having a school conference record eight points on September 19 against Ramapo College and that game has proven to be a catalyst. On Monday, Tejada recorded his third effort of five or more points this season and now has 22 points over his last eight games.
 
After scoring just nine goals in his first 64 career games, Tejada has seen his career numbers skyrocket to 17 goals and 18 assists for 52 points. He increased his 2012 totals to eight goals and a New Jersey Athletic Conference-best nine assists for 25 points.
 
Tejada scored the game-tying goal and netted the third goal, while providing an assist on the game-winner by sophomore midfielder/forward MANNY MARTIS (Union, NJ/Union). Freshman forward ABOUBACAR DIAWARA (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne) and senior midfielder NANA KOFI KUSI (Newark, NJ/Kumasi Academy (Ghana) chipped in assists on both Tejada tallies.
 
NJCU junior goalkeeper SHELDON PARKINSON (New Rochelle, NY/Herbert H. Lehman (Bronx, NY) made five saves to limit the Eagles to just one goal. Senior Chris Muhs (West Babylon, NY/West Babylon) stopped 11 shots for the hosts.
 
St. Joe's struck first at the 28:16 mark of the first half as senior midfielder Brendan O'Brien (Mount Sinai, NY) made a pass to the middle of the field and senior defender John Dettori (Bay Shore, NY) was able to find the net with a shot from 35 yards for his sixth goal of the season, giving O'Brien his fifth assist.
 
Trailing 1-0 at the break, NJCU wasted no time in getting the equalizer out of the break as Diawara slipped a thru ball into the box, setting up Tejada's seventh goal of the season which evened the game at 1-1 at the 46:36 mark. The assist was Diawara's third of the year.
 
NJCU has scored a number of pretty goals during the season with its ability to make precise passes and a give-and-go in the box at the 73:04 mark led to the eventual winner, as Tejada dished a thru ball to Martis, who buried his second goal of the season for a 2-1 advantage.
 
The Eagles only had three more shots the remainder of the game and the Knights got a needed insurance tally at the 85:01 mark as Kofi Kusi dribbled up the field and found his fellow co-captain, Tejada, in the box for a 3-1 cushion. It was Tejada's ninth goal and Kofi Kusi's second assist.
 
NJCU is 5-1 at home this season and will return to the Robert L. McNulty Memorial Soccer Field for an NJAC game on Wednesday, October 10 at 3:30 p.m. against Rutgers-Newark.