By Shawn Retta
Staff Writer
An 11-5-5 record gave the Lion’s Men’s Soccer team their first winning season since 2019. This season, with seven starters returning, Coach Steve DeMatteo looks to bring this team back to the NJAC championship, and this time with some better hardware.
Under new leadership, Coach DeMatteo revived the program, leaving the Lions one goal away from claiming their first conference title since 2005. They the top seeded No. 20 Montclair State Red Hawks 4-1 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference semi-finals before falling 0-1 to Rowan in the conference championship.
On the offensive side of the pitch, senior forward Chris Meder and sophomore Matt Will look to continue off of last year’s success. Meder not only won first team NJAC, but also first team All-Region, scoring 13 goals and 11 assists. He’s notably the first Lion to have 10+ goals and assists since 1997. Right by his side, Will comes back this year with Second Team All-NJAC honors as a freshman, and looks to climb to first team honors this year.
When asked to give one word that would best describe this upcoming season and why, Will responded “Hungry. We have most of the lineup returning from the team that made the final last year, and we’ve added a lot of exciting new players to the group. I think there’s a real hunger within this team to accomplish more.”
The Lions had another phenomenal freshman last year that will be an anchor of the defense this year. Freshman Sean Najdzinowicz became the first goalie in the College’s history to be 1st team all NJAC as a freshman and also received second team All-Region honors. He led the NJAC in save percent with a rate of 83.8% (62/74) and is looking to become more of a lock for the Lions’ defense.
“As a goalie, you can’t have success without the guys in front of you, so all the credit goes to them and all of my teammates… Going into this season, I just want to keep building off of last year and continuing to get better each and every day in training so that I can do whatever I can to help the team succeed,” Najdzinowicz stated.
The Lions begin their quest to NJAC immortality when they face Manhattanville at home Tuesday, Sept. 1. Then, they hit the road where they travel to Elmira and Ithaca Saturday, Sept. 5 and Sunday Sept. 6 respectively.
