NEWARK, N.J. (Oct. 29, 2022) – When the Rutgers University-Camden and Rutgers University-Newark women's soccer teams played a regular-season game here on October 15, the teams swapped goals within the opening 2:50 of play and that was all the scoring in a 1-1 tie.
 
The action was quite different here Saturday in the first round of the New Jersey Athletic Conference playoffs.
 
The teams waited until the 67th minute to break the scoreless deadlock this time, trading goals in regulation before enduring 20 scoreless minutes of overtime. A penalty kick shootout followed and when the dust cleared, it was Rutgers-Camden that advanced with a 4-3 PK victory.
 
Although the game is recorded as a 1-1 tie, Rutgers-Camden advances to the NJAC semifinals at 7 p.m. Wednesday at top-seeded Montclair State University. The Red Hawks defeated the Scarlet Raptors, 3-0, during the regular season. Rutgers-Camden will bring a 4-8-5 overall record into the game, while Newark ends its season at 7-8-5.
 
After the teams played to a 1-1 tie through 110 minutes, they took an alternating series of five penalty kicks and the first one, a missed shot to the right by Newark's Leila Ettayebi, turned out to be the difference in the game. Both goalies, Scarlet Raptor junior Kayla McKeever and Scarlet Raider sophomore Katie McLaughlin, made one save on the third round of kicks. Other than that, and the opening miss by Ettayebi, all the other kicks were successful.
 
The Raptors' opening kick by freshman Maresa Savarese found the lower left side of the net. On the second round of kicks, Newark's Camila Howard and Camden senior Lauren Bone were both successful. After McKeever and McLaughlin both made saves in the next round, Newark's Viviana Valencia and Camden sophomore Hannah Crowley both made their team's fourth PK attempt. With the Raptors leading, 3-2, Newark temporarily knotted the score when Maria Castillo put the Scarlet Raiders' fifth shot into the lower right corner, leaving the final shot to the reliable feet of Scarlet Raptor sophomore centerback Amy Maurer. Maurer, who has been a rock on defense all season long, sent the winning shot low to the left of the net.
 
Prior to all of the penalty kick dramatics, the Scarlet Raiders broke the scoreless deadlock at 66:52 when Ettayebi sent a shot into the lower right side of the net. She was assisted by sophomore forward Mariana Valencia.
 
Rutgers-Camden tied the game at 77:25 on the team-leading fifth goal of the season by Savarese. Her high shot into the center of the goal was assisted by Bone.
 
Rutgers-Camden finished the 110 minutes of action with a 17-14 edge in shots and a 7-4 advantage in corner kicks. McKeever collected five saves for the Scarlet Raptors, while also adding a huge save in the PK session. McLaughlin had six saves for Rutgers-Newark.