New Jersey City University Athletics

2014 MEN'S SOCCER GAME #13:
New Jersey City University Gothic Knights (1-8-3, 0-3-0 NJAC; Streak: Lost 3) vs.
Rutgers University-Newark Scarlet Raiders (10-2-0, 3-0-0 NJAC; Streak: WON 10)

Robert L. McNulty Memorial Soccer Field | Jersey City, NJ | 1 p.m.

QUICK LINKS: LIVE STATS

FOR STARTERS: NJCU faces the hottest team in the NJAC today as Rutgers-Newark enters the game having won 10 straight. RUN owns a share first place in the NJAC with Montclair State. Meanwhile, NJCU will seek to snap an eight-game winless streak. The Knights have lost three straight.

THE SERIES: Rutgers-Newark leads the all-time series, 20-17-2. RUN has won the last five meetings.

RANKINGS: The Scarlet Raiders will enter the game as the highest ranked NJAC team. RUN is fourth in the NSCAA/Continental Tire NCAA Division III Men’s South Atlantic poll (September 30, poll No. 5). The Raiders received three votes in the NSCAA Top 25—equivalent to a No. 27 ranking. RUN received 12 votes in the D3soccer.com Top 25 poll (equivalent to a No. 34 listing).

LAST TIME OUT: On Wednesday, NJCU lost at Kean, 2-1. NJCU snapped the Cougar’s shutout streak in the 20^th minute when Aboubacar Diawara scored his fourth goal of the season off a feed from Kevin Cavalcanti. But Kean rookie forward Sevag Kherlopian tied it in the 56^th minute and won it with a header in the 85^th. Tyler Krychkowski made four saves. NJCU put seven of its 11 opportunities on net.

LAST MEETING: October 16, 2013 in Newark, NJ. RUN won, 7-0. The Raiders  scored two goals in a span of 31 seconds in the seventh minute and led 4-0 at the break. NJCU (6-7-1, 2-4-0 NJAC) couldn’t get much going in the way of offensive chances all night as the Scarlet Raiders (12-3-1, 3-2-1 NJAC) outshot NJCU, 19-6, including a 12-2 margin in shots on goal. Patryk Dawidczyk who amassed his first career hat trick, scoring the second, fourth and sixth goals.  Raphael Araujo scored the first goal of the game in what proved to be the game-winner against his former club. Hubert Dul added a goal and an assist. Anthony DeRisi contributed two assists. R-N also had an own goal in the 90^th minute. Matt Broomall had two saves in the shutout.
 

‘RUN’NING AWAY: RUN is 10-2 overall and 3-0 in the NJAC. RUN has won 10 consecutive games since a 0-2 start.

BEEN A WHILE: NJCU’s eight-game winless streak is the longest such streak since a 13-game winless streak (11 straight losses) during the 1991 campaign.

EAST RETURNS: Today marks another homecoming for former Gothic Knight men’s soccer coach Kevin East. Easily the program’s all-time winningest coach with a mark of 123-66-11 (.643) in 200 games from 1998-06, his nine-year stint with the program included eight post-season appearances, six NJAC Tournament berths, two NJAC championship games, the 2004 ECAC Metro title and the 2005 NCAA Division III Sweet 16. It’s only his third trip back to Jersey City (2010, 2012) since leaving for Rutgers-Newark in 2007. East, whose brother Jeff East, `04, was inducted into the NJCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008, owns a 5-1-1 mark against his old club.

NO ARAUJO: Newark will be without star forward Raphael Araujo, last year’s co-NJAC Offensive Player of the Year. The three-time NJAC Offensive Player of the Week (seven times in career) and one-time National Player of the Week picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Ramapo College and must sit out of his next game. The former Gothic Knight (2011-12) currently leads the NJAC in scoring (13 goals, 28 points). In 22 games for NJCU he scored 16 goals (one assist) for 33 points.

GET OUT THE BROOMS: RUN goalkeeper Matt Broomall set a school record on Wednesday with his 16^th career shutout in a 3-0 win over Ramapo. He’s only a junior.

ALUMNI DAY RESCHEDULED: Due to rain in the forecast, today’s Alumni Day has been rescheduled for the rain date of Saturday, October 18 when NJCU faces Richard Stockton. There will be a barbecue and men’s soccer apparel available that day and after the contest, an alumni pickup game.

NJCU WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS: Tyler Krychkowski is the lone Gothic Knight to earn a weekly honor this year. In week one he was the Disney Soccer/NSCAA Division III National Player of the Week in his first week ever playing goalkeeper. He also was named the first New Jersey Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week and ECAC Division III Metro Player of the Week.

RUTGERS-NEWARK WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS: Raphael Araujo is a three-time NJAC Offensive Player of the Week this season, winning the award in week two, three and this past week (week 5). Diego Moraes was NJAC Defensive Player of the Week in week four.

KRYCHKOWSKI EXPERIMENT: The experiment of having a field player, Tyler Krychkowski, switch to goalkeeper this season out of need when NJCU’s two keepers from 2013 did not return, is working. NJCU has not allowed more than three goals in a game this season and nine of 12 games have been decided by a goal or less. Krychkowski, whose appearance in Sports Illustrated’s ‘Faces in the Crowd’ on September 15 marked the 12^th time since 2000 an NJCU athlete has appeared in the magazine, leads the NJAC in saves (72) and ranked 14^th nationally. He is 62^nd in the country in saves per game (6.00).

SCORING WOES: NJCU, traditionally a high-scoring team, is struggling for offense this year. The Knights rank 381^st of 402 schools in Division III in scoring offense (0.67 per game), 385^th in points per game (1.58) and 389^th in assists (0.25). The Knights have eight goals and three assists all season.

NJAC MEN'S SOCCER STANDINGS: Conference standings thru October 3. (@NJACSports)