Box Score NEWARK, N.J. – The Rutgers University-Camden men's soccer team proved it wasn't ready to relinquish its three-year hold on the New Jersey Athletic Conference championship.
After falling into a 1-0 halftime deficit here Tuesday night in the NJAC semifinals, the third-seeded Scarlet Raptors stunned No. 2 seed Rutgers-Newark with three second-half goals, two by junior forward
Mike Ryan (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) in a 13-minute span, and went on to eliminate the Scarlet Raiders, 3-1.
The victory vaults the 13-7-1 Scarlet Raptors into the NJAC finals for the fourth consecutive year. They will play at top-seeded Montclair State University Friday night at 7 p.m. The Red Hawks defeated Kean University, 3-0, in Tuesday's other semifinal game.
Rutgers-Newark falls to 15-5, with two of those losses against Rutgers-Camden in a span of 11 days. The Scarlet Raptors have won their last five games against the Scarlet Raiders to take a 29-11-2 lead in the all-time series. One of them came in Camden on Oct. 25 by a 2-1 margin. Last year the two teams met in the NJAC championship game, with the Scarlet Raptors posting a 2-0 victory to win their third consecutive conference crown.
On a night where the Scarlet Raptors set program history in addition to a course to the NJAC finals, nobody came up bigger than Ryan, whose two goals wiped out a 1-0 deficit. At 71:24, he collected a loose ball off a blocked shot on the left side and fired a shot into the middle of the net for his 13th goal of the season. The goal tied the game at 1-1.
With 5:50 remaining in the contest, sophomore midfielder
Juan Rojas (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway) sent a through ball on the right side that found Ryan, who ripped a shot into the left side of the net. His 14th goal not only extended his all-time program record to 53 goals, but it gave him four points on the night, allowing him to tie the Rutgers-Camden career scoring record of 118 points, set by
Mitch Grotti last season. Ryan owns 53 goals and 12 assists in his stellar three-year career.
The Scarlet Raptors tacked on their final goal with one second remaining when junior midfielder
Grant Taylor (Mendham, NJ/West Morris-Mendham) ripped a shot from the right sideline to notch his third goal of the season. Junior midfielder
Connor Hurff (Sewell, NJ/St. Augustine Prep) assisted on the play.
Newark finished with a 19-13 advantage in shots and a 6-3 edge in corner kicks, but the second half proved to be a different game. In the first half, the Raiders outshot the Scarlet Raptors, 10-4, and held a 4-1 advantage in corner kicks on their way to a 1-0 lead. They got on the scoreboard thanks to a penalty kick on an inadvertent handball in the box at 41:17. Senior forward
Raphael Araujo (North Plainfield, NJ/North Plainfield) took the PK to score his 18th goal of the season.
Scarlet Raptor freshman goalie
Sean Matias (Vineland, NJ/Millville) finished with four saves – three of them in the second half – as he raised his record to 5-1-1. His counterpart, Newark junior
Matt Broomall (Somers Point, NJ/Mainland Regional), finished with seven saves, five of them in the second half.
In addition to Ryan tying the all-time point record, Grotti also saw another one of his program records tied. The game marked the 93rd at Rutgers-Camden for senior midfielder
Joe Auleta (Hammonton, NJ/Hammonton), tying the program mark set by Grotti last season. Auleta has started 92 consecutive games, a program record, since coming off the bench to play in his first collegiate contest.
