CAMDEN, N.J. (Oct. 30, 2018) – When you are among the top teams in the New Jersey Athletic Conference year in and year out, it's no surprise that many of your players will be honored when it comes time for All-NJAC recognition.
 
That was the case for Rutgers University-Camden when the conference announced its All-NJAC Men's Soccer Team today.
 
Senior goalkeeper James Brett captured his second honor in three years as the NJAC Goalkeeper of the Year, leading an all-conference team that featured seven Scarlet Raptors.
 
Brett, who was a four-time All-NJAC star during his stellar collegiate career, captured his second all-conference First Team honor. A quartet of Scarlet Raptors earned NJAC Second Team honors, including junior midfielder Patrick Grudnik, sophomore forward Skyler Diggs and a pair of center backs in senior Brian Palangi and junior Trenton Hall.
 
Junior midfielder Chris Taraska and freshman back Michael Funaro were both named NJAC Honorable Mention.
 
The total of seven All-NJAC honorees was one shy of the program record, as both the 2011 and 2013 teams featured eight all-conference players. Both the 2004 and 2012 teams also had seven all-conference players.
 
All-NJAC photo gallery
 
Rutgers-Camden finished third in the NJAC during the regular season, posting a 6-2-1 conference record. The Scarlet Raptors were 13-4-2 overall during the regular season before losing a NJAC First Round playoff game, 2-1, Saturday. They will find out about a potential ECAC or NCAA berth within the next week.
 
Brett continued his brilliant collegiate career this season, starting 17 games, posting a 9-5-2 record, collecting three shutouts, 89 saves, a 0.95 goals-against average and an .848 save percentage. He made a season-high 11 saves in a 2-1 overtime loss at Rowan University (Oct. 17) and had 10 saves in a season-opening 3-2 win over New York University (Aug. 31). He was named the NJAC Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 1.
 
Brett earned NJAC Honorable Mention as a freshman in 2015 and captured NJAC First Team and Goalkeeper of the Year honors as a sophomore in 2016. Last year he was a NJAC Second Team selection and was named to the ECAC All-Tournament Team after leading the Scarlet Raptors to the championship game.
 
For his career, Brett has played in 85 games as the Raptors' goalie, tied for the 13th-highest total of appearances in program history. He has an .814 career save percentage and a 41-31-12 career mark. His 41 wins, 1,18 shots faced and 7,524:55 minutes in goal rank second on the program's career goalie list. He is third in saves (438), tied for fourth in shutouts (17) and currently ranks fifth in goals-against average (1.20) heading into the potential of more post-season action.
 
Diggs leads the Scarlet Raptors in scoring this season with nine goals and three assists for 21 points. He notched three game-winning goals this season, coming against Old Westbury (Sept. 1), Immaculata (Sept. 20) and Penn State-Abington (Oct. 4), while adding two-goal games against both Immaculata and William Paterson (Oct. 20).
 
In his two seasons at Rutgers-Camden, Diggs has played in 42 games, starting 21, including 19 this year. He owns 16 goals and four assists for 36 career points. Five of his career goals are game winners.
 
One of the Scarlet Raptors' midfield playmakers, Grudnik has started 18 games this season, scoring three goals and adding three assists for 13 points, second on the team in scoring to Diggs. He collected his first career game-winning goal against Staten Island (Sept. 8), helping him earn a berth on the Cialella Soccer Classic All-Tournament Team (Sept. 8-9). For his three-year Raptor career, Grudnik owns eight goals and nine assists for 25 points, while playing in 59 games (38 starts).
 
The trio of Hall, Palangi and Funaro helped to anchor a strong back line for the Scarlet Raptors, who posted six shutouts, a team goals-against average of 0.88 and a team .852 save percentage.
 
Palangi and Brett were two of the Raptors' four captains this season. A big, strong center back, Palangi started all 20 of the Raptors' games this season. He tied for fourth on the team in scoring with four goals for eight points, and notched game-winning tallies against The College of New Jersey (Oct. 2) and Rutgers-Newark (Oct. 6). Palangi was named to the Cialella Soccer Classic All-Tournament Team (Sept. 8-9) and captured honors as both the NJAC Defensive Player of the Week and Rutgers-Camden's Raptor of the Week on Oct. 8.
 
Palangi transferred to Rutgers-Camden after a stellar two-year junior college career with Rowan College at Gloucester County, where he was a First Team All-American and the NJCAA Division III Player of the Year in 2016. In his two years with the Raptors, he started 28 of his 35 games while collecting seven goals and one assist for 15 points. He had three game-winning goals.
 
Hall transferred to Rutgers-Camden this season after being named an All-Garden State Athletic Conference First Team player during both of his seasons with Rowan College at Burlington County. In addition to his defensive work, he notched two goals for four points, including the game-winning tally against William Paterson University (Oct. 20). He was named Rutgers-Camden's Raptor of the Week on Oct. 22.
 
Funaro was a defensive standout in his first season of collegiate soccer after a decorated scholastic career while leading Washington Township High School to four straight South Jersey Group 4 titles. He was an All-State Third Team player, a Courier-Post All-South Jersey First Team player and a South Jersey Times All-Area First Team star with the Minutemen. He played in all 20 games this season at Rutgers-Camden, starting 19 and collecting two assists.
 
Taraska earned his third letter with the Scarlet Raptors this season, starting all 19 of his games while leading the team with eight assists. His eight points tied for fourth on the club in scoring.  
 
Taraska's eight assists tied for 11th on the Rutgers-Camden single-season charts and were the most by a Scarlet Raptor since Connor Hurff had 11 in 2015. For his three-year career, Taraska has appeared in 47 games, starting 26, and collecting 10 assists for 10 points.
 
NJAC release