CAMDEN, N.J. (Oct. 10, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Camden men's soccer team used Wednesday's non-conference game to play most of its roster on a warm afternoon on the Rutgers-Camden Community Park turf.
Despite all the changes and a game with little action around either goal, one thing remained the same for the Scarlet Raptors: they posted another victory.
Rutgers-Camden used first-half goals from freshmen
Kaito Kitazawa and
Vergil Douglas and went on to defeat Lancaster Bible College, 2-1. The victory was the eighth straight for the Scarlet Raptors, who improve to 11-3-1 with the third-longest winning streak in program history. The longest streaks – a pair of 11-game strings – were both set in 2013.
Lancaster Bible, which had lost to Rutgers-Camden by a 7-1 score on its home field last season, falls to 5-6-1.
The Scarlet Raptors took only eight shots, while the Chargers had six in a game where neither team managed to mount many serious attacks. Rutgers-Camden also held a 6-4 edge in corner kicks.
The Raptors broke a scoreless deadlock at 17:22 following a perfect cross from junior midfielder
Chris Taraska, delivering the ball to the far left post from the right flank. Kitazawa,
pictured above, volleyed home his fourth goal of the season for a 1-0 lead. It was the team-leading sixth assist for Taraska.
Rutgers-Camden added the eventual game-winning goal at 36:35 when Vergil notched his first collegiate tally. Another pair of freshmen,
Elliott Cumba and
Michael Buchy, collected their first collegiate assist on the play. Cumba slipped the ball from the middle of the field to Buchy on the right side, who sent a cross into the box toward the far post, where Vergil finished the play.
Lancaster Bible scored its lone goal in the 54th minute off a restart on the left side by Jared Jordan. His feed into the box near the right post was one-timed into the net by Chad Tolson for his third goal of the season.
Senior
James Brett and sophomore
Kieran Burns split time in the Rutgers-Camden goal, with Burns playing the bulk of the time and picking up the victory. He allowed one goal and made one save in 53:31, while Brett made one save in 36:29.
Junior C.J. DeMarsico had three saves in the Chargers' net.
Rutgers-Camden returns to action Saturday with a 1 p.m. New Jersey Athletic Conference game at Ramapo College.
