JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University freshman center midfielder Mallensy Vargas (North Bergen, N.J./Memorial)'s game-winning overtime goal on September 28 was so golden, it was selected as one of the top plays in the country. The video highlight of Vargas' golden goal winner for the NJCU women's soccer team on the road at Rutgers-Newark was featured nationally as the No. 6 play on the 'Top Plays' segment of ESPN's SportsCenter on September 29.
 
Watch the highlight
 
Vargas' sensational score was highlighted during the 11 p.m. East Coast edition and the later West Coast/overnight and morning editions.
 
The play developed with just 21 seconds remaining in the first overtime of NJCU's road New Jersey Athletic Conference match with Rutgers-Newark under the lights at Newark's Alumni Field. After Vargas was fouled from behind in the waning moments, she was awarded a free kick at the top of the penalty arc. Her set piece caromed off the four-woman Rutgers-Newark wall and before it could bounce twice, Vargas chased down the rebound and drilled a perfect top shelf volley shot into the left side of the net to unleash a massive celebration of a 2-1 victory. The win ended a multi-year conference winless streak. It was her second goal of the game—the third time this year she's scored at least twice in a contest.
 
The play is the seventh ever known instance of an NJCU athletics highlight being featured on SportsCenter and one of more than a dozen times a Gothic Knight team or student-athlete has been chronicled by the ESPN family of networks since 2007. It's the first NJCU generated play to make the national show since the men's soccer team appeared twice in three weeks in September and October 2013. It's the third time the women's soccer team has had a Top Play; it also achieved the distinction in October 2010 and again in October 2011.
 
Vargas, a former Second-Team All-State Group 4 selection who capped her high school playing days with 148 goals and 52 assists for 348 points, has enjoyed an incredibly strong first month of her collegiate career. The New Jersey Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week on September 19 and Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Division III Metro Rookie of the Week later that week, she has led NJCU to a 4-3-1 record and has scored half of the team's 16 goals, putting away eight (one assist) for 17 points. She currently leads the conference in goals per game (1.00) and points per game (2.12).