JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Sophomore center midfielder Mallensy Vargas (North Bergen, NJ/Memorial) bagged her second hat trick of the season, third of her career and 25th career goal and junior midfielder Katherin Merino (Harrison, NJ/Harrison) and freshman forward Raven Wright (Sayreville, NJ/Sayreville War Memorial) each scored twice as the New Jersey City University women's soccer team celebrated Senior Day 2017 with a convincing 9-0 thumping of Brooklyn College on October 9 at the Robert L. McNulty Memorial Soccer Field.
 
NJCU (4-8-0) scored four goals in the first half and its bench helped pour on five more in the second to win its second straight game. Brooklyn (3-9-0) dropped its fifth in a row. NJCU outshot BC, 38-7, including 22-1 in the second half.
 
The Gothic Knights entered the game with 11 goals on the season in their first 11 games before nearly doubling that total in the win over the Bulldogs.
 
Prior to the game, NJCU honored its four women senior class, four-year players Madison Castellanos (Morristown, NJ/Morristown), Claudia Gomez (Union City, NJ/Union City) and Catarina Teodosio (Newark, NJ/Newark East Side) and two-year starting center back Lexi Mescavage (Bayonne, NJ/Saint Dominic Academy).
 
Vargas had a career-high seven points and chalked up her 10th, 11th and 12th goals of the season. She added an assist for the second straight game, giving her 27 points on the year. The goals were the 23rd, 24th and 25th of her two-year career.
 
Merino scored for the second straight game, tallying her second and third goals of the season. Freshman forward Raven Wright (Sayreville, NJ/Sayreville War Memorial) collected her first five collegiate points with two goals and an assist. Sophomore midfielder Bianca Ventura (North Bergen, NJ/North Bergen) scored her first goal in an NJCU uniform and freshman midfielder Katherine Morales (Union City, NJ/Union City) scored on a penalty kick in the 76th minute for her first career goal.
 
Sophomore midfielder Karen Tuesta (Clifton, NJ/Clifton) provided her first two assists of the season. Freshmen midfielders Catarina Borralho (Newark, NJ/Science Park) and Yarvic Gonzalez (Newark, NJ/Newark East Side) each had an assist for their first collegiate points and sophomore forward Liliana Ventura (West New York, NJ/Memorial) chipped in her third assist of the season.
 
NJCU's mixture of defensive players, which included Gomez and Mescavage, limited Brooklyn to two shots on goal—both saves by junior goalkeeper Dominique Jackson (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne), who recorded her second shutout of the season. Brooklyn freshman keeper Dajanna Pena (Brooklyn, N.Y.) had 12 stops under heavy pressure.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
NJCU got on the board in the 15th minute. After a shot from 12 yards in the middle of the box was saved on the left post by the keeper—only NJCU's second shot off the game—Brooklyn could not clear and Vargas collected the rebound on the left wing and fired home her 10th goal at the 14:05 mark.
 
In the 19th minute, Brooklyn junior midfielder Keri Kenna (Lake Grove, N.Y.) made several moves to elude three defenders and dribbled into the box before Jackson challenged the straight on shot at the penalty mark to preserve the shutout. It was Brooklyn's last scoring opportunity.
 
Just 30 seconds later, Castellanos was taken down in the box and awarded a penalty kick. Looking for her first career goal, her shot caught the underside of the crossbar on the left side and caromed out.  In the 21st minute, Merino avoided several defenders on the right wing, drew out the keeper but narrowly missed the left post.
 
NJCU added a second goal in the 31st minute. Borralho claimed her first career point and assist, slipping a ball from the middle of the box to the left wing where Merino drilled a shot.
 
A minute later Castellanos had another shot at her first goal with a high attempt from the right endline. The keeper reached up to knock it down and grabbed the ball before it trickled over the line.
 
With 9:38 left in the half, Wright slipped a ball into the box to Vargas, who blasted a shot off the crossbar. Wright followed the shot and immediately deposited the rebound on the ground into the left side of the net for her first collegiate goal and a 3-0 lead.
 
In the 39th minute, NJCU made it 4-0. Wright played a beautiful ball across the field from the near right wing to the far left to Vargas who settled it, dribbled in and scored from the close left endline—her second tally of the game and Wright's first career assist.
 
Just over four minutes into the second half, Tuesta slipped a ball up the sideline, sending Vargas in on a breakaway to complete the hat trick, before she left the game after 49 minutes. It was Tuesta's first assist of her Gothic Knight career.
 
Slightly less than two minutes later, Merino added her second goal early in the 52nd minute as Ventura touched a pass to her at the top of the 18, unleashing a shot into the left side of the goal. NJCU added a seventh goal in the 58th minute with Bianca Ventura (North Bergen, NJ/North Bergen) drilling a shot from the top of the box off Tuesta's feed from the right.

 
With 13:37 left Morales, after a foul in the box, connected on a penalty kick into high middle of the goal. Wright, who came back into the game as a substitution late in the second half, scored on a breakaway in the 80th minute off a feed from Gonzalez.
 
OF NOTE:

• Series: NJCU leads, 2-1, winning for the second straight year.
• Updated all-time goal scoring list:
  • Jennifer Albuja (91 goals; 2007-08, 2010-11)
  • Julia Caseres (78 goals; 2009-11)
  • Katie Feehan (33 goals; 2004-07)
  • Ashley Cunha (31 goals; 2009-10)
  • Carine Carvalheiro (28 goals; 2001, 2003-05)
  • Mallensy Vargas (North Bergen, NJ/Memorial) (25 goals;, 2016-17)

 
UP NEXT:

• NJCU heads to Union, N.J. on Wednesday, October 11 at 7:30 p.m. when it faces Kean University (9-4, 3-2 NJAC) under the lights in a New Jersey Athletic Conference game. It will be the 24th meeting; Kean leads all-time, 22-1.

 
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