By: Contact: Ira Thor | @irapthor (201/200-3301) or Jim Turvey
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) |
New Jersey City University men's soccer sophomore forward
Edric De Paula (Blairstown, NJ/Newark Tech)'s golden goal heroics made national news on September 17, featured nationally as the No. 2 play on the 'Top Plays' segment of ESPN's
SportsCenter during its 8 a.m. morning edition.
The highlight from NJCU #GothicVision depicts two angles as
De Paula scored a scintillating bicycle kick game-winning goal just 3:19 into the first overtime period to lift the Gothic Knights to a 3-2 win over the College of Mount Saint Vincent. With the win, the Knights improved to a school record 8-0-0, surpassing the 2016 club for the best start to a season in the 61-year history of Jersey City men's soccer.
De Paula, who had not played all game because of an injury, entered as the overtime session began, and he made his historic impact immediately. The Knights built a nice attack down the left flank, with senior center midfielder
Joe Burgos (Hackensack, NJ/St. Benedict's Prep)—last week's NCAA Division III National Player of the Week—floating a perfect ball over the retreating Dolphin defense to pick out
De Paula who settled the ball with his chest and with his back to the goal, biked a shot into the near left side to stun CMSV. It was his fifth goal of the season and first game-winner.
While NJCU athletics has had many highlights featured on ESPN in the last decade, the No. 2 play is the highest NJCU has ever appeared on the Top 10. Ironically, the No. 1 play occurred just a few hours later and just seven miles away when Odell Beckham, Jr. made a one-handed catch for the Cleveland Browns against the New York Jets on Monday Night Football at MetLife Stadium.
The play is the eighth 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 Top 10 highlight since
Mallensy Vargas' on September 29, 2016 and the fourth time a men's soccer highlight has appeared on the Top 10.
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