Box Score

HAVERFORD, Penn. (Oct. 5, 2016) – After losing the bulk of its offense to graduation last season, the 2016 season was supposed to be a year for the young Rutgers University-Camden men's soccer team to rebuild and reload. That development, however, just took a major leap here Wednesday afternoon.
 
Freshman Antonio Romero (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill East) headed in a first-half throw-in and the Scarlet Raptors went on to outlast one of the top teams in the nation with a 1-0 non-conference victory over Haverford College.
 
Haverford, ranked No. 5 in the latest NSCAA Division III Top 25 poll and No. 12 in this week's D3soccer.com Top 25 poll, falls to 7-2-2 overall, snapping a five-game winning streak and an eight-game unbeaten string (6-0-2).
 
Rutgers-Camden improves to 6-2-3, including 2-1-2 in the five games it has played this season against opponents either ranked in the Top 25 or receiving votes toward one of the national polls.
 
Rutgers-Camden scored the lone goal of the first half at 38:35 when the 6-foot-5 Romero headed in a throw-in by sophomore midfielder Eric Hurff (Sewell, NJ/St. Augustine Prep) for his first career goal. It also proved to be his first career game-winning goal. It was Hurff's third assist of the season, tying three other players for the team lead.
 
Haverford held first-half advantages of 4-2 in shots and 3-1 in corner kicks and went on to out-shoot the Scarlet Raptors, 16-4, with a 7-1 advantage in corner kicks. Sophomore goalkeeper James Brett (Palmyra, NJ/Palmyra) finished with seven saves while earning his 20th career victory and 11th career shutout. He also pushed his career minutes played in goal to 3,117:47, moving him past Brent Grunow (3,035:40 from 2005-07) into eighth place on the program's all-time list.
 
Haverford senior keeper Sam Miller (Mercer Island, WA/Mercer Island) had one save, coming off a shot by sophomore Walter Barreto (East Windsor, NJ/Hightstown).
 
Rutgers-Camden has a busy weekend scheduled, which begins with a 1 p.m. New Jersey Athletic Conference road game on Saturday at New Jersey City University. On Sunday at 2 p.m., the Scarlet Raptors host the United States Merchant Marine Academy in a non-conference game.