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(02/05/13 5:00pm)
Playing the role of cardiac kids throughout much of the weekend, the wrestling team overcame early deficits for a treble of wins at the New England-Metro Duals before ending its five-game winning streak with a loss to No. 11 Springfield College.
Success for the Lions (11-6) came in droves at the upper-middle weight classes, as senior John Darling (165), junior Zach Zottollo (174) and junior Brian Broderick (184) went a combined 11-0 during that winning stretch.
Tack on a win by decision from junior KC Murphy (174) and those three weight classes put up 62 percent of the team’s total points during the stretch.
“They’re some of our most talented wrestlers but also some of the most dedicated year-round,” head coach Joe Galante said. “They may not wrestle everyday but they’re always training — running, swimming (and so on).”
Yet, partially due to the absence of freshman Kevin Churchill (125) and senior Dan Herr (133), the Lions opened three of the four matches by losing the first two rounds, including in Sunday’s 24-17 loss to familiar Metropolitan Conference foe Springfield.
“Springfield is a tough team, a large team,” Galante said. “They have Jersey guys, too, so we know some of their wrestlers. What did it for us was giving up the bonus points — whatever momentum we had was lost at that point.”
The Pride and Lions traded blows early to tie it at eight, as sophomore P.J. Schmidt (141) earned five points via technical fall and freshman Mike Shaughnessy (149) earned a win by decision to counter Springfield’s early headway.
Points from Darling, Zottollo and Broderick put the Lions in the driver’s seat despite a Springfield pin at 157 pounds, but the Pride closed out the match at 197 pounds and heavyweight to give the Lions their fourth loss this year that went down to the final round.
In stark contrast, this past Saturday’s New England-Metro Duals tournament featured three Lions wins that extended their season-best winning streak to five games.
“It was another great team performance, again not just from one guy but the whole team,” Galante said. “The bench was alive, the guys were cohesive.”
Early-match losses put the Lions in a 6-0 hole against Roger Williams University to start the tournament, but the Lions were able to come back by taking six of the last eight bouts in an eventual 22-15 win.
Schmidt, Shaughnessy, Darling and Broderick picked up wins by decision, while Zottollo and Nathaniel Leer (285) added bonus point wins for the comeback victory.
In similarly dramatic fashion later in the day, Hunter College gave the Lions their largest deficit since Jan. 5 by building a 10-0 lead through three rounds.
Yet seven straight successful Lions bouts — highlighted by a Broderick technical fall and the ability of senior Dan Brill (197) to limit the Hawks’ gain at heavyweight — ensured an 18-16 triumph.
The other match of the weekend, against Williams College, saw the Lions run wild in a 31-12 win that featured bonus points across the board. Freshman Jimmy Gill (125), sophomore Joey DiCarlo (133), senior Antonio Mancella (157 from 174), Darling, Murphy, Broderick and Brill all picked up wins for the Lions, who only dropped decisions at 141 and 149 and a forfeit at 285.
The remaining schedule will just keep getting tougher for the Lions. On Friday, Feb. 8, the Lions travel to No. 7 Wilkes University, have a tilt with No. 8 Delaware Valley College the following week, and take on No. 15 Messiah College in Packer Hall to close out the season on Saturday, Feb. 16.
“We play a lot of good teams, all ranked teams in the top 15. It’s just the way our schedule works,” Galante said. “It’s good for our guys to wrestle against the competition before Regionals.”
(01/29/13 5:00pm)
In a week that showed the wrestling team’s ceiling to be nearly out of sight, the 19th-ranked Lions took care of the United States Merchant Marine Academy by a final score of 33-10 before sending shock waves through Division III with a 21-17 upset of No. 3 Centenary College.
Flipping the script on the Cyclones allowed the Lions (8-5) to beat a team above them in the national rankings for the first time this season. This happened by moving wrestlers around to take advantage of favorable matchups.
“They beat us pretty bad last year,” Lions head coach Joe Galante said. “I couldn’t tell you what the score was, but it was pretty bad, so we knew who their guys were and who the personnel was. We match up well with them.”
The deciding bout came at 197 pounds, where Junior Brian Broderick (184 pounds) was moved, and the pressure was on since an injury problem forced the Lions to forfeit six points at 285, even if the Cyclones were unaware of it.
“Prior to the match, we had already known that Nate Leer (197) and Jeff Furbish (285) would not be wrestling because of injuries, but we had weighed them in anyway as a strategy,” Broderick said.
Yet Broderick had no problems pinning his aggressive, larger opponent less than a minute in for the game-ending six points.
“We needed to bump (Broderick), he is explosive if the guy’s pushing into him,” Galante said. “Bigger guys tend to push into smaller guys, and (Centenary’s Brandon Hull) did that, which played right into our hands. Lo and behold, he clinched it.”
“With the team score being 15-11, I knew that I could get a decision and we would win the match,” Broderick said. “Just before I wrestled, I slapped fives with Coach Galante and he told me to make sure I did one thing and that was to ‘have fun.’ So I went out there and did exactly that, and everything worked out.”
Filling in for Broderick at 184 pounds was junior Zach Zottollo (165), who won by decision. Junior KC Murphy (165) tied up the Cyclones’ star, third-ranked Kevin Dufresne, keeping Centenary at a safe distance heading into the match’s closing stages.
“They put their top guy at 174 pounds, so we put Murphy in and he wrestled a hard-fought match,” Galante said. “We knew if he didn’t get pinned, we had a chance.”
Earlier, No. 4 senior John Darling (165) won over newly ranked Owen Vernon by a final score of 2-0. Dylan Thorsen (141) seized control of his matches in the third period for a win by decision, and freshman Kevin Churchill (125) gave the Lions a lead to start the match for the 10th time this year.
“Week in and week out (Churchill) has continued to put forth huge performances for us and gives us the momentum we need early on in the match,” Broderick said. “Even though he isn’t ranked, we feel rankings don’t mean much anyway. It wouldn’t be fair at all to say that he can’t compete with the best in the nation.”
It required great performances across the board for the necessary points in the tight upset, and the largest momentum swinger of them all might have come from freshman Nick Detsis (157).
“Perhaps one of the greatest matches of the night, which many of us felt was the turning-point of the match, was when Nick Detsis decisioned (Alan Jordan) to give us back the lead, which we would hold onto for the rest of the evening,” Broderick said. “When you have two ranked teams and the match starts getting down to the wire, it’s those hard-fought points that make the difference at the end of a dual meet. And on Friday night, it was enough to get the job done successfully.”
It was also the Lions’ second win over a nationally ranked team, which showed their extra preparation leading into the new semester.
“We’ve had some barn-burners this season with matches that we certainly could have won, but we weren’t capitalizing on our opponents’ mistakes and giving up points far too easily,” Broderick said. “Over the past few weeks, the coaches have been working with us on our technique, making sure that we’re not only picking up the big things, but also little details which have made the biggest difference.”
A dominant mid-week showing provided part of the momentum that carried into Packer Hall against the Cyclones on Friday, but was also rewarding on its own.
“It was a big match for us because they beat us a couple years ago,” Galante said. “Their coach is an alumni, and it’s a good East-coast rivalry. They’re always in great shape, obviously well-coached, and it was an intense match.”
USMMA had come close to defeating other ranked schools, including No. 25 New York University a week before, but the Lions put on a clinic to grab an early 19-0 lead and later clinched a victory after winning seven of the first eight bouts.
Churchill and Darling earned pins,
while Sophomore Joey DiCarlo (133) also got on the scoreboard for six points with a win by forfeit.
Thorson added a win by major decision and Broderick cleaned up with a win by fall for his first game-winning bout of a great week.
“A week like this can do miracles for a team, but we certainly can’t get ahead of ourselves,” Broderick said. “I think that the Budd-Whitehill Duels in Lycoming was a great team-building experience for us and this week proved to us that we have a team of not just 10 guys, but 20 or so including the ones that are behind the scenes too, that allow us to keep improving on our year.”
(01/29/13 5:00pm)
It is easy to doubt this year’s edition of the New Jersey Devils, which looks like a far less talented and complete squad than many others crafted by general manager Lou Lamoriello. There are an abundance of explosive wingers led by point-per-gamer Ilya Kovalchuk, but there are few genuine offensive threats otherwise. Last year’s rookie sensation, Adam Henrique, is missing a sizable portion of the season due to injury, David Clarkson is effective but will never replace the contributions of Zach Parise, and the only New Jersey defenseman who possesses any talent going forward is Marek Zidlicky. Meanwhile, great iconic players like Patrik Elias and Martin Brodeur have become old enough that it is no longer unfair to doubt how much longer they can keep it up.
This is largely the same Devils team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals last year, though, and I do not believe their perceived weaknesses will hold them back in a significant way. The lack of veteran scoring threats at forward will certainly hurt, but two players who did not play most of last year in New Jersey will help them score at a reasonable rate. The return of Travis Zajac, who missed most of last year due to injury, but might have been New Jersey’s best player not named Kovalchuk during the playoffs, can only mean good things, and it will be enormously beneficial to have Marek “quarterback of the power play” Zidlicky playing for a full year.
The offense might still fall off at times, but that should never overshadow the surplus of solid Devils defensemen who will be helping Brodeur add to his career shutout record. Zidlicky’s defense is questionable, but studs like Andy Greene and Mark Fayne, not to mention 19-year-old superprospect Adam Larsson waiting in the wings for a guy like Henrik Tallinder to falter, make this the deepest, best blue line New Jersey has had in a long time. There are a lot of good individual players here that have bought into the New Jersey system. It helps that the lack of roster turnover on defense translates into added chemistry, which might factor into regular season success more than ever thanks to the absence of a preseason. Through 64 games, scoring has been up from 2.68 goals per game last year to 2.88, yet the Devils have conceded less than two per game. That number will look less spectacular come season’s end, thanks to the law of averages. But the Devils’ ability to play as a unit will surely limit their goals against average.
Most convincing, though, is the argument that this is the Devils. Let’s be honest — they’re always good, aside from a 2010 year in which a young coach bit off more than he could chew. Talent is a little thin this year, but given the history of the team and their penchant for overachieving, Eastern Conference rivals should look past the Devils as viable contenders at their own risk.
(01/22/13 5:00pm)
Participating in a pair of tournaments that featured similarly high levels of competition, the wrestling team won four of nine matches to stay above .500 heading into the busiest part of the season.
The 23rd-ranked Lions (6-5) outscored their opponents 183-168 overall in January, defeating McDaniel College in the North/South Duals on Jan. 5 and collecting a trio of wins over Trine University, the United States Coast Guard Academy and John Carroll University at the Budd White Duals a week later.
“I thought winter break was very good for the team,” senior John Darling said. “We trained very hard and had some very tough matches. The biggest achievement over break was coming closer as a team.”
Tough matches were a common theme, as the Lions’ top-heavy schedule, including matchups with national powers No. 4 SUNY Cortland and No. 9 Ithaca, brought three defeats by five or less points versus ranked programs, two coming against Metropolitan Conference rival and No. 21-ranked York College.
“York is a tough in-conference team who we battle with year in and year out,” Darling said. “Both matches were very close and the second match finished in a tie, but we lost on criteria (the secondary tiebreaker).”
The Spartans played the role of spoilers early at the North/South Duals by earning a 21-20 victory, while a 17-16 (43-42) result in favor of York at the Budd White Duals kept the Lions out of the semifinals and pushed them into the consolation bracket.
“What we can take from that loss is that every individual point scored counts towards the team score and every wrestler on the team needs to be aware of that,” Darling said.
Success in a few weight classes was plentiful, though, as individual point-scoring was amplified at 125 and 165 pounds.
Darling went undefeated for 41 points and freshman Kevin Churchill (125) had 33 with a 7-2 record as the duo combined for 39 percent of the team’s points over the nine games.
Junior Brian Broderick (184, 197) went 5-0 at the Budd White Duals, including four wins by fall, for 23 points while staying undefeated in dual meet action this season.
“Broderick is a great wrestler,” Darling said. “There is nothing flashy about his style, he is just strong in every position. He always helps our team with bonus points.”
Antonio Mancella (165, 174) also picked up four wins to improve to 12-8 in all competitions, while Zach Zottollo (174) added another three wins to bring his season total to 13.
The Lions withdrew from the Metropolitan Conference Duals, slated for Jan. 19, when it was changed to a non-championship event, and will next be in action Wednesday, Jan. 23 against the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Packer Hall.
(12/05/12 5:00pm)
Wrestling grinded out its annual victory over King’s College last Tuesday before earning second place at the New Standard Invitational in York, Pa., where three Lions won their weight classes and senior Dan Herr (No. 3 at 133 pounds) was named Most Outstanding Wrestler.
Herr won a pair of pins in the first two rounds and drew upon his experiences to take two tight bouts, including a dramatic 2-1 decision over No. 5 Nathaniel Giorgio in the final, for a tournament title he narrowly missed out on twice in the past two years.
“The difference in this tournament was experience and composure,” Herr said. “In a tight match, keeping yourself focused and on task is extremely important. Being named Outstanding Wrestler among the group of kids at the tournament is a huge honor. Last year, Mike Denver (eventual Division III champion for the Lions) won it and I aspire to follow in his footsteps.”
Senior John Darling (No. 4, 165) earned three wins by decision before an 8-0 major decision in the final and sealed his second consecutive title at the New Standard Invitational. Meanwhile, junior Brian Broderick (184) comfortably outscored his first three opponents 31-1 before pinning the other finalist in just 26 seconds.
Kevin Churchill (125) and PJ Schmidt (141) also placed to help the 21st-ranked Lions finish the day a handful of points behind No. 8 Ithaca and 15 above No. 20 York, Pa., a successful result that showed the team’s intense style of wrestling.
“Our team’s formula for success is simple — be mean, be focused and attack,” Herr said. “When you break your opponent’s will, the match is over.”
Earlier in the week, the Lions (2-0) stayed perfect in dual meet action by beating the slumping Monarchs of King’s College, who had been on a nine-game losing streak entering the match and have now lost the last seven meetings between the two teams by a combined score of 232-68.
A pair of successful bouts right off the bat gave the College a temporary 6-0 lead, as DiCarlo came away with a 16-11 decision and freshman Steven Churchill (133) doubled the advantage with his first competitive collegiate win.
The Monarchs quickly canceled out the College’s headway with decisions of their own in the 141-pound and 149-pound weight classes, but a rally by the Lions brought control back to the home team.
Mancella pinned his opponent at 1:18, Darling and junior Zach Zotollo (175) tacked on wins by decision, Broderick earned a technical fall and Dan Brill (197) continued his good form with a win by a major decision that relegated the Monarchs’ triumph at 285 pounds to being consolatory.
The Lions will next be training during the break to prepare for the more grueling spring schedule, where the NCAAs await.
“The plan for winter break hasn’t changed in the five years I have been here,” Herr said. “Train harder than everyone else in the country. Our goals have already been established and now it’s time to carry out the plan and really focus in. The men on the team who buy in and leave everything they have on the mat and in the wrestling room will be successful.”
(11/27/12 9:00pm)
Starting off the dual meet portion of the season on a high note, the wrestling team won seven of 10 bouts at previously nationally-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology before putting five wrestlers in the quarterfinals of the East Stroudsburg Open.
The 21st-ranked Lions (1-0) avenged last year’s home loss to the Ducks with a dominant 31-11 victory, taking the lightest three and heaviest four weight classes while only dropping points in the middle three.
“We wrestled pretty well. It was nice to come back and win after they beat us last year,” head coach Joe Galante said. “I thought we had a chance to win nine bouts, a couple of them were pretty close.”
Freshman Kevin Churchill (125 pounds) earned his first six dual meet points for the Lions in a forfeit to start the meet, and junior Steve Godine (133) doubled the team’s advantage with a technical fall at 5:41.
Freshman Steve Schneider (141) added another three points with a win by decision while emphasizing the team’s younger lineup, with three freshmen starting against the Ducks and underclassmen earning all of the Lions’ 31 points.
“We still have returning All-Americans on the team, but we’re a little younger, a little bit more hungry,” Galante said. “I see competitiveness — the younger guys wrestle with a lot of intensity and they’re fierce.”
Stevens Institute responded to the Lions’ hot start with 11 straight points of their own, with three of them coming in a hard-fought clash between third-ranked Joe Favia (165) of Stevens and fourth-ranked senior John Darling (165) of the College.
The Lions closed out the match convincingly, though, rattling off four wins — including two major decisions and a technical fall — through junior Zach Zotollo (174), junior Brian Broderick (184), sophomore Nathanial Leer (197) and junior Jeff Furbish (285).
No wins — or even team scoring — were earned at the East Stroudsburg Open on Saturday, Nov. 17, where Division I and II teams competed alongside the College.
Churchill, Darling, Broderick, senior Dan Brill (197) and Furbish advanced to the quarterfinals of their weight classes with a pair of wins, while PJ Schmidt (141) picked up three successful bouts of his own.
“I would consider the East Stroudsburg Open to be one of the best Open tournaments in the country,” Galante said. “We didn’t see the success we wanted to. Just because we’re in D-III doesn’t mean we shouldn’t win these bouts, we could have been better in a couple of weight classes.”
Next up for the Lions is their home opener against King’s College on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 7:30 p.m., and they will travel to York College for the New Standard Corporate Invitational on Saturday for the third tournament of the season.
(11/13/12 11:00pm)
With nearly all of its pieces retained from an enthralling 2011 campaign and successful postseason, the 26th-ranked wrestling team hinted that more good things are to come with a second place finish at the annual Fall Brawl.
Seniors John Darling (167-pound weight class) and Kenny Amponsa (197) went undefeated to lead the Lions, while four others placed to lift the team over a long list of opponents that included Division I school Franklin & Marshall College.
“What the team can take away from the Fall Brawl is the potential strength and power of our best line up,” Darling said. “As a team, we finished second behind Ursinus (College), and some of our best guys didn’t get a chance to wrestle this weekend.”
Amponsa’s return to the fold after taking his junior year off could not have gone smoother, as he picked up a pin and three decisions for his first career tournament title.
“Kenny is a natural athlete,” Darling said. “On the wrestling mat, he can be extremely explosive and hard to stop in the neutral position. We are fortunate to have Kenny back in the lineup this year.”
The lone subtraction from the roster this season will be 2012 champion and guaranteed point-earner Mike Denver, who in 2011 was named the NCAA Division III Wrestler of the Year, but this is still a veteran-laden squad with double-digit winners across the board.
Amponsa and Darling are two examples of returning wrestlers, with former NCAA qualifiers Steve Godine (125), Dan Herr (133) and Brian Broderick (184) — who have a combined 165 career wins — are also ready to help the team achieve its perennially lofty ambitions.
“It is going to be different without Mike Denver in the room because he is a great competitor to look up to,” Darling said. “This year, we will have wrestlers throughout the lineup that have wrestled in the national tournament and wrestlers who are coming off strong seasons last year.”
Sophomore P.J. Schmidt (141), another returning game-changer who earned 25 bouts at 125 pounds last year, added five more wins and a third-place finish at Fall Brawl to his résumé in a new role for the Lions.
Joining him was junior Zach Zotollo (165), who showed off the team’s depth at the 165-pound weight class with his second consecutive third-place finish at the tournament, while juniors Justin DeAndrea (184) and Kevin Churchill (125) nabbed fourth in their positions.
Adding up the six top-four finishes gave the Lions a grand total of 134 points, just a mere 10 behind host Ursinus, three more than Franklin & Marshall, and more than double the average score of 61 points among the 15 teams participating in the event.
High expectations will travel with the Lions to No. 30 Stevens Institute of Technology this Wednesday, who ended a long losing streak against the College in last year’s season opener, and to the East Stroudsburg University Open on Saturday for another taste of tournament action. The Lions look to use these early meets as a springboard to their ultimate goal.
“Just like any other season, we train for the national tournament,” Darling said. “We’re looking forward for the ESU Open.”
(11/13/12 10:39pm)
Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime, but loan him $1,000 to start a small fishing business and you have given him the power of microfinance — a Nobel Prize-winning concept Rohan Mathew of the Intersect Fund passionately advocated for in the Business Building lounge Monday.
Mathew’s claim to fame is co-founding the Intersect Fund, a non-profit that has grown into New Jersey’s largest microlender, after exploring the community near Rutgers’ New Brunswick campus as a student and being “depressed” with what he saw.
“You go four blocks in any direction off campus or downtown, and you realize you’re in another world,” Mathew said. “You look a little deeper at the numbers, and you see that in the city of New Brunswick there’s one in three families in poverty. That means one in three families — so imagine a family of four — are living on less than $20,000 a year. I don’t know what that is … That’s bad.”
Mathew found a common theme among local residents with low-paying service jobs, though. “We started hearing the same thing over and over: A lot of people had informal side businesses they were running as a way to put food on the table.”
That is when an unconventional but increasingly popular response to poverty caught his eye: microlending, the act of giving small loans — the Intersect Fund’s average is $2,000 — to low-income individuals.
“It was one of those things that you read about in a New York Times story and you get really excited about, because it’s a sustainable solution,” Mathew said.
Microlending is fueled by the idea that many low-income individuals, if given an opportunity to prove themselves, can better their economic situations in life through sheer ability and determination.
When reliable clients take out loans and the system works, the ceiling for any one individual depends solely on his or her own potential.
“If you grow this business and your primary source of revenue is this business, who are you limited by?” Mathew said, comparing a business owner to a service worker whose hours are controlled by a third party.
Microlending originally met the needs of third-world countries like Bangladesh when economist Muhammad Yunus started it through the Grameen Bankin in the 1970s, but had exploded into a worldwide way of doing business by the time Yunus accepted a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in 2006.
To determine whether candidates for taking out loans can be clients, the Intersect Fund has a three-part test: first, potential borrowers have to show that they need a loan for a viable business opportunity; two, show they can afford it; and three, prove they are likely to repay it.
Under the test the Intersect Fund’s return rate is above 98 percent, and by fostering client relationships and hiring local officers that know the lay of the land, an improbable idea born out of boredom has grown into a massive source of local entrepreneurship in the time Mathew graduated from Rutgers.
“In the three years since then we’ve raised over $2.5 million, we’ve trained over 1,000 entrepreneurs, and we’ve made over 250 business loans,” Mathew said. “We do more business than the four other non-profit microlenders in New Jersey combined.”
The takeaway from sophomore economics major Matt Scapardine of Net Impact, the student organization interested in socially innovative economics, was that microlending and the Intersect Fund are an example of how College students can get out there and positively affect the world around them.
“Even though we’re college students, we also have the opportunity and the ability to reach out to our communities — in very simple ways, it doesn’t take a lot of work — to make a difference,” Scapardine said.
(11/07/12 5:00pm)
Major League Soccer playoffs have kicked off to celebrate the league’s 17th consecutive year in which it has not folded, which wouldn’t be impressive if not for the sport’s historical unpopularity in the U.S. The North American Soccer League of the ’70s and ’80s could not last this long despite incredible star power including the likes of Pele, and through the late ’80s the average person’s options for professional soccer were limited.
Just a decade ago, MLS had to pay ESPN to broadcast its games, which probably would have put up better ratings had they been infomercials for steak knives, and two teams were contracted. Some owners, businessmen who ignored history and expected the sport to take off when MLS was founded in 1996, counted their losses and left — at one point roughly half of the league was indirectly owned by a lone billionaire willing to burn cash for his love of the beautiful game through the Anschuntz Entertainment Group. Satan and Brendan McGrath rejoiced, as the future of American soccer looked bleak.
Apocalypse was averted, though, and since then the game has reached impressive heights (albeit minor considering those of the “four major sports”): for one, MLS has thrived building passionate fans and non-corporate atmospheres at games. Some of its teams are actually profitable, and MLS’ average attendance is higher than that of the NBA and NHL — impressive even considering how tickets are cheaper and stadiums are larger in soccer than in basketball or hockey, considering how impossible it would have seemed in the dog days of the early 2000s.
There have also been bidding wars recently from channels like FOX, ESPN, Al Jazeera and the nascent beIN Sport for the rights to foreign leagues, international competitions and even MLS itself. Last year the league nabbed a then-blockbuster deal with NBC, which presumably promised to grow the sport like it did hockey through Versus, and the ever-expanding exposure of soccer has never been more apparent than it was last Sunday afternoon. During official gridiron hours, an MLS playoff game and EPL replay were broadcast on NBC and FOX, respectively, another miniscule feat which would have seemed impossible fairly recently.
And just this month NBC signed a three-year, $250 million deal with the EPL that will put 380 more soccer games on its family of networks every year while hockey continues to feed itself poison pills in the guise of lockouts. It might take another 10, 20 or 30 years before soccer even challenges the NHL for the “most popular team sport that is still considered niche” status, but while you’re waiting, get used to the phrases “nil-nil” and “draw.”
(11/07/12 5:30am)
A collapse in a do-or-die game against Rowan University was rendered meaningless by circumstances outside of the men’s soccer team’s control, leaving the team outside the playoff picture for a second consecutive year due to a 4-2 loss on Wednesday, Oct. 24.
The Lions (7-11) showed flashes of promise down the stretch, finishing the season 3-2 while scoring an average of more than three goals per game in that time, and they showed off their offensive prowess against the Profs with two early goals from senior forward Ray Nelan and junior midfielder Tyler Higgins.
Sophomore midfielder Kevin McCartney looped a ball over the back line in the third minute which Nelan latched onto, and the forward muscled off his defender before finishing from close range for his second goal since coming back from injury.
Nelan troubled the Profs’ defense again in the 20th minute by forcing the turnover which led to a blistering 20-yard laser from Higgins, who had earned a place in head coach George Nazario’s starting XI with a hat-trick against New Jersey City University.
But a galvanized Rowan squad on the brink of elimination rattled off four straight goals, two by towering central defender Jared Mangone, to kick off a run to the NJAC finals against Rutgers-Camden University.
The Rowan comeback also ended a disappointing season for the Lions, who more or less equaled their 2011 season in all of the major statistical categories: win percentage (from 35 percent last year to 39 percent in 2012), goals per game (1.65 to 1.56) and goals conceded (1.94 to 1.72).
The College did perform better in conference play, though, improving its record from 1-6-2 to 3-6-0, and three seniors were honored by the NJAC for their play throughout the season: goal-scoring machine Kevin Shaw and industrious midfielder Sean Casey were named to the all-conference second team, while assist-leader and central defender Vince McEnroe was an honorable mention.
The Lions will have a host of game changers that could return next year, though, including McCartney, Higgins and goalkeeper Mike Libucha for another crack at making the postseason.
(10/23/12 11:51pm)
In a game that sometimes resembled an advertisement for the men’s soccer team rather than a competitive athletic event, the Lions ran rampant over New Jersey City University on Saturday, Oct. 20th., with a 6-3 victory keeps their faint playoff hopes alive heading into Wednesday’s season finale.
It was only the second time since September 2007 that the Lions (7-10) have scored six or more goals in a game, and they were led by a substitue — substitute midfielder and hat-trick hero, junior Tyler Higgins.
“He put himself in spots where he at least has the opportunity to finish,” head coach George Nazario said. “If you put yourself in good spots and you get an opportunity, at least you can have a chance to score a goal, and that’s what he did today.”
Higgins’ ability to find and exploit space was a game-changer, and also instrumental was the return of injured senior forward Ray Nelan, who he earned his first points since 2010.
“If we had him for the whole season it’d be a different scenario,” Nazario said. “Even though he may not always score goals, every team in the conference knows what he’s capable of doing and that usually creates space for other guys.”
Nelan torched New Jersey City down the right side repeatedly in the first half, sent in his fair share of crosses, and picked up four points overall to help lift the Lions over the high-octane Gothic Knights.
“Ray’s importance to the team couldn’t be overstated,” Higgins said. “A day where he scores a goal and has a couple of assists is just another day in the office for Ray, and we’re all really happy to have him back in the squad.”
New Jersey City’s offense threatened in transition early, and double-digit goal scorer Eduardo Tejada volleyed a bouncing ball past senior goalkeeper Matt Frederick in the 15th minute for the opening tally.
The Lions found ample space on the flanks, though, and punished New Jersey City for lax defending when freshman midfielder Tokio Nakamoto found himself a couple yards clear of the nearest defender in the 30th minute.
“Tokio hit a cross in and Shaw realized it was too deep to shoot for himself. He (headed) it across,” Nelan said. “I got a touch on it and I knew on the second touch or third touch a defender would be on me, so I tried to get rid of it as fast as I could, and luckily I got it away clean.”
After Nelan lashed the ball into the net for his 10th career goal, the Lions camped out in New Jersey City’s half and were rewarded for positive possession play with five consecutive second-half goals.
“Our season was on the line (Saturday), and at halftime we knew we needed to kick it into gear,” Higgins said. “I think our performance displays how badly we want to make it to the postseason, and we took the first step to getting there.”
Higgins gave the Lions their first lead right after intermission, winning a footrace with the lone New Jersey City player that stayed back on a counter attack and sliding a shot under the legs of goalkeeper Kevin Feuntes.
A desperate New Jersey City team started sending defenders forward in search of a life line, but the Lions absorbed pressure and took advantage of the gaps in their opponent’s back line.
“The first one seemed to open the floodgates,” Higgins said. “After I scored for the first time I gained a little bit of confidence and composure in front of goal and it was a bit easier to put the other two away.”
Higgins’ second came in the 52nd minute, when Nelan took the ball to the end line on the left side and deked his marker before passing it to Higgins for a simple tap-in.
Less than 90 seconds later, Shaw slipped in behind the center of the defense and slotted home a through ball from Nelan, and another Shaw score later in the game gave him his team-leading ninth goal of the year to go alone with his three assists.
Not to be outdone, Higgins completed his hat-trick in the 63rd minute when sophomore midfielder Kevin McCartney spotted him 30 yards clear of defenders on the right flank.
McCartney lofted the ball over to Higgins, who dribbled it a few times before sending a curling shot over and around Feuntes from 20 yards out.
New Jersey City picked up a couple of late consolation goals that Frederick will want back, but the end result was a big win that keeps the possibility of playoffs alive — the Lions need to win their regular season finale against Rowan University and William Paterson University to only take a tie from its last two games.
“We’re not exactly where we want to be, but we still have the opportunity to make the NJAC playoffs,” Higgins said. “As long as we take care of our business and get a little help from the conference, we can secure our spot for the postseason.”
(10/16/12 6:36pm)
A suddenly efficient offense for the men’s soccer team, firing on all cylinders, was enough to split a pair of road games last week, as the College canceled out a victory at William Paterson University with a late loss at Kean University to set up two must-win games at home.
The Lions (6-10) scored just 11 times in their first 12 games, but have made a habit of finding the back of the net lately with nine in their last four and six goals last week.
“I think the entire team, especially (head coach George Nazario) knew the goals were going to come, it was just a matter of when,” freshman goalkeeper Mike Libucha said of the team. “In the second half of the Muhlenburg game (Oct. 3) it was like someone flipped a light switch on us and suddenly we score seven goals in the next three games.”
The goals came for both the Lions and their opponent in a wild 4-2 win at William Paterson, with the Pioneers opening the scoring in the 15th minute and freshman midfielder Tokio Nakamoto responding just five minutes later.
Junior forward Vinnie Carbone canceled out another Pioneers goal with his second of the year after half time, and the College earned its first lead of the night when senior midfielder Sean Casey smacked a low shot to the right of the Pioneers’ goalkeeper in the 62nd minute.
Sophomore midfielder Kevin McCartney blasted home an unassisted goal in the 82nd minute to seal the game and earn his second goal in as many games.
The Lions’ lively offense returned for the trip to Kean, with Casey knocking home a McEnroe corner kick in the 5th minute and Shaw converting a pass from McCartney in the 68th to set the score at 2-1.
But the Lions squandered the lead, conceding two goals in the final six minutes of the game against a team that had been on a three-game losing streak.
“I still am trying to figure out what happened in the last five minutes,” Libucha said. “I talked to (Vince) McEnroe and Kevin Shaw and all three of us didn’t know what to say, we didn’t know who to blame. (As) soon as they scored their tying goal, the next five minutes happened so fast and Kean kept storming down the field with chances and eventually they punished us.”
The loss puts the Lions in must-win mode as they close out the regular season against conference cellar-dwellers New Jersey City University and Rowan University during Homecoming week.
“The last two games are do or die for us. If we still want a shot at the NJAC playoffs we need to win them both,” Libucha said. “I think the message is pretty clear for the whole team and we all know we have to take care of business.”
(10/09/12 6:47pm)
It was week of highs and lows for the men’s soccer team, which did its best Cyclone impression by pairing a clunker against middling Muhlenberg College with a win over Salisbury University on the strength of a late goal from sophomore midfielder Kevin McCartney.
The Lions (5-9) ended a five-game losing streak with their 1-0 win over the Sea Gulls, a team that has broken in and out of the national rankings this season, despite a performance not necessarily better than what the team put forward in previous games.
“I would say we probably had more opportunities in other games and didn’t stick them away and today it just happens to go in, and it winds up being a 1-0 win,” head coach George Nazario said.
The result was another reminder of the importance of scoring first, as it improves the Lions to 3-0 when they score the opening goal and leaves them 2-9 when they do not.
“When we score first it gives us confidence to play better as a team,” McCartney said. “It boosts the morale of the team (and) makes us play better overall.”
“It’s always easier to play with the lead,” Nazario said.
Goalscoring opportunities were few and far between until the second half, when freshman goalkeeper Mike Libucha was called upon to make a pair of saves and the Lions threatened several times themselves.
Senior midfielder Kevin Shaw put senior Sean Casey in behind the Salisbury backline for a preview of the goal, which came in the 85th minute when Shaw threaded a perfectly weighted ball past three Salisbury defenders and into the path of an on-rushing McCartney.
“I saw Shaw get the ball, turn quick and I saw an opening down the middle,” McCartney said. “I had to make that run, and he played it to me perfectly.”
McCartney is naturally a technical midfielder who Nazario has put up top for the Lions in an effort to create more goalscoring opportunities.
“Originally I was an advanced midfielder, and the past two or three games (Nazario’s) played me up as forward to try and hold the ball up, create more opportunities, (and) get the ball moving,” McCartney said.
The move paid dividends with the dramatic winner, a slick interchange between Shaw and McCartney which put on display the understanding between the team’s attacking players.
“I can connect with them well,” Shaw said. “It’s easy to read the game when you’re on the field, they know what I’m thinking and I know what they’re thinking. It’s just a matter of, in the final third, finishing our chances.”
The win over Salisbury could not have been much different the nightmarish first half against Muhlenberg a few days earlier, when the Lions fell behind 3-0 in the team’s worst 45 minutes of the season.
“There was a pretty strict half-time talk,” McCartney said.
Senior defender Vince McEnroe and Casey made it a close game by scoring in the second half, with McEnroe ending a teamwide 422-minute scoreless streak and both goals providing scoreboard evidence there was improvement in the second half.
“We just wanted to come out with motivation and we couldn’t go out losing at our home field 3-0,” McCartney said. “There was a little bit more urgency, a will to try and come back into the game.”
The end result was a disappointing loss, though, and despite Saturday’s win the Lions are four games below .500 with four games remaining in the season.“I think we technically still have a chance to make the playoffs, so we just got to come out as hard as we can,” McCartney said. “We (have) to stay composed and be confident in our strategy and the way we play.”
(10/02/12 9:50pm)
A once-promising season is turning sour for the men’s soccer team, which extended its scoreless streak to 352 minutes in a pair of losses to Rutgers-Camden and Rutgers-Newark Universities last week en route to dropping into last place of the 10-team NJAC.
The Lions (4-8) have been shutout in five of their last seven games, a stretch in which they are 1-6, and head coach George Nazario is stumped on how to get goals.
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be here right now,” a frustrated Nazario said after Saturday’s home loss to Rutgers-Newark. “If you don’t create chances there’s a problem, (but) if you create chances you’d think (a goal) is going to come.”
Nazario’s team has outshot opponents 173-131 over the course of the season, but just 6.4 percent of the its shots have been converted into goals compared to 12.2 percent for adversaries.
Basically, the finishing has not been there.
“It is (frustrating),” senior midfielder Kevin Shaw said. “We’ve got to turn it around sometime soon. There’s not much room left for us to keep doing this.”
Each loss makes a NJAC postseason appearance for the Lions seem less and less likely. Right now there are only six games remaining in the season, and the last playoff spot is property of a team at .500.
If the Lions are to close out the season on a positive note, though, the team will probably continue to lean on a sturdy defense and good goalkeeping from senior Matt Frederick and freshman Mike Libucha.
The Lions’ defensive unit has only allowed 1.25 goals per game as a unit in 2012, or .68 goals fewer than it did last year, and Libucha’s .83 goals against average is the best of any College keeper since 2009.
“(Libucha) has been great,” Shaw said. “He transferred here this year and he has been — both of our keepers have been — playing great to keep us in the games.”
But the Lions will need more than just goalkeeping to stop the bleeding and return to the win column.
“People are thinking about playoffs, it’s in the back of our minds,” Shaw said. “But we have to take it a game at a time to get back on track first.”
(09/25/12 9:03pm)
In a week defined by spectacular goals and acute heartbreak, the men’s soccer team generated plenty of drama but few goals to slip two games below .500 for the first time this season.
The snake-bit Lions (4-6) came from behind to beat Richard Stockton College on the strength of a brace from senior midfielder Kevin Shaw, but were on the wrong end of late-game heroics in double overtime against Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham and in overtime at Montclair State.
Goals have come at a premium for the Lions, who came into last week in the midst of a 236-minute goalless streak and have scored just three times in their last five games.
“Scoring has been our downfall so far,” junior midfielder Sean Casey said. “It’s not that we aren’t creating enough chances it’s just that we haven’t been putting them away. I think you will see that change in the next few games we play.”
Converting opportunities was no issue in the team’s massive 2-1 win over Richard Stockton. The game opened up with Ospreys forward Chris Katona scoring an audacious front-footed chip from 15 yards out in the 49th minute.
From then on it was the Kevin Shaw show, as Shaw found the back of the net twice in four minutes to improve his season total to a career-high six goals and give the Lions a much-needed W.
“That was huge for our team’s morale and it really gave us confidence moving forward throughout the season,” Casey said. “(To) have someone like Shaw who can make a scoring opportunity out of nothing is something we need as a team, and I can’t express how Shaw is key to making our team play to their full potential.”
Richard Stockton took the lead with a goal, but the Lions countered. Shaw outran his marker, chested the ball down and slotted it home to the far post for the equalizer, four minutes before rounding off the scoring by getting on the end of a free kick from senior defender Vince McEnroe.
McEnroe put a pass on the ground to Shaw, who was left alone 30 yards out from goal, and the Lions’ top scorer blasted the ball into the upper 90 for a highlight reel finish and an important game winner.
“The Stockton game was huge in this past stretch of games,” Casey said. “It showed that we could come back and win when we are down. That was a big morale booster for the season.”
Since weather had delayed the game against Richard Stockton to a day before a match versus FDU-Florham, head coach George Nazario played a B-team against the Devils for most of regulation, and the strategy worked even if the Lions lost.
The Lions conceded a goal in the last minute of double overtime to continue a bizarre winless streak in overtime games, which dates back to October 2010.
Following a corner for the Devils, McCartney took the ball from deep within the Lions’ half, dribbled it 70 yards down the field and rounded the goalkeeper before calmly sliding it into the net for his first goal of the season.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Shaw said. “That came off of their corner — it was deflected — (McCartney) made a great run and he was able to put it in, I was glad he was able to do that.”
The Lions continued to dominate and were unlucky not to be up a man when freshman forward Greg Perri appeared to have his shirt tugged on a breakaway, but the Devils equalized in the 26th minute and managed to bend but not break for the rest of the game.
The unfortunate combination of a positive performance and bad result would re-appear for the team’s loss at Montclair State, when Red Hawks junior Dan Mendoza scored a goal from 22 yards out less than 90 seconds into overtime to hand the Lions another harsh result and heartbreaking loss
Improvement is expected, though, and with seven games left in the season, the Lions have ample time to become a stronger unit and eventually earn a playoff berth.
“Overall, we are improving in regards to the chemistry of the team and I feel that is going to be key come the end of the season,” Casey said.
(09/18/12 9:24pm)
A small but inspired community met for the first time at Green Lane Fields on Sunday, Sept. 16, as students and Special Olympics athletes teamed up to play soccer in a new club created by Special Olympics New Jersey called Unified League.
Weekly soccer games that partner College students with athletes with disabilities are the current focus of Special Olympics New Jersey and aim to provide an enriching experience for all parties involved.
“Unified sports are so important because it gives Special Olympics athletes a chance to interact with typical peers, and (my son) is inspired by that,” said Liz Donahue, mother of Special Olympics athlete and goal-scoring machine, Will. “For TCNJ to say, ‘OK, we want to really establish an organized program,’ is phenomenal. For kids like Will, any opportunity for organized sports is fantastic.”
During Sunday’s two-hour event, three athletes and five students stretched, ran basic drills and played a friendly four-on-four game of soccer.
The athletes were immersed and competitive — Will showed off his ruthless shot early and often, Michael Capone performed his best Lionel Messi impression and Becky Scheick played defense that would make Vincent Kompany envious. The day reinforced the College’s commitment to athletes with disabilities a few months after hosting the 2012 Special Olympics New Jersey Summer Games.
“We hope this league will enhance the already strong relationship between the College and Special Olympics N.J.,” said Ed Dean, assistant intramural and sports club coordinator for the College. “It is a new and exciting experience for everyone involved and we are happy to be a part of.”
The now weekly 1 p.m. event represents an enjoyable, social and ultimately beneficial experience that everyone involved can look forward to, allowing athletes with disabilities to exercise in a community with faces they recognize.
“Staying in shape is a life-long thing for these guys. (Will) has no way of working out but he loves the game of soccer. He loves the competition, and to be here at TCNJ with college students,” Donahue said. “We wish there were more opportunities.”
Not only do athletes enthusiastically interact with students, but they can develop long-lasting relationships with each other through athletic competitions.
“Becky and Will have been doing this for a long time, and the Special Olympics athletes get to know each other,” Donahue said. “Becky is five years older than Will, but they’ve been friends because they’ve played on teams together, and it’s great.”
And while attendance among athletes with disabilities was small for Sunday’s event, numbers are expected to increase after the word about the new league starts to circulate.
“We just have to get the word out — communication is the hardest thing. They all go to different schools, we all live in different towns. There’s not a central communication,” Donahue said.
While athletes with disabilities benefit from the program, the Unified League can also be a rewarding experience for student volunteers.
“Individuals volunteering will gain experience and leadership along with developing team skills with athletes who are not as physically skilled as students without a disability,” Dean said.
Donahue also pointed out how beneficial the support of volunteers will be for the league.
“It’s just so great that (the College’s) opening up its fields, that the students will get up on a Sunday and come and play soccer,” Donahue said.
The College’s commitment to athletes with disabilities will also be on display as it phases in unified volleyball and other sports throughout the year and the same advantages — as well as excitement — will be there for athletes and students alike.
“We’re thrilled,” Donahue said. “(Unified League) really benefits everyone — it’s a win-win-win.”
(09/11/12 9:26pm)
The men’s soccer team played its best soccer of the young season this week by out-possessing, out-pressing and out-playing their opponents in a three-game stretch to move above .500 for the first time in almost a year.
The Lions (3-2) earned multi-goal wins over Berkeley College and Lebanon Valley College, with a loss to No. 10 Babson College sandwiched in-between.
“I think this past week is the best we’ve played all season,” midfielder Kevin Shaw said Sunday. “Against Babson we lost and they’re a good team, but we came out and played with energy. We pressured higher up the field and took the ball, and against Lebanon Valley we came out really flat, but then controlled the match and scored three unanswered goals.”
The most dominant showing for the team might have been their 3-0 rout of winless Berkeley at Lions Stadium, though, when they stayed disciplined in the back and owned the majority of possession for their second clean sheet in as many games — coincidentally their season total from 2011.
“It was a good team win,” freshman forward Greg Perri said post-game, forty minutes after scoring his first goal for the program. “It felt really good to get the win, especially since my family was here. It’s nice to get off to a good start at home.”
The College started the scoring in the 17th minute, when from the top of the box sophomore midfielder Kevin McCartney slipped a through ball to on-rushing junior midfielder Tyler Higgins.
Higgins squared the ball back to the top of the six, where unmarked junior forward Vinnie Carbone lashed the ball into the back of the net for his first goal of the year.
Perri out-hustled Berkeley defenders on a free kick in the 56th minute to increase the lead, tapping home a cross from senior defender Vince McEnroe, and Shaw put an exclamation point on the performance by converting a penalty kick in the 87th minute.
The goals came in spite of the performance from Berkeley goalkeeper Thomas Frangeih, who stood on his head to make seven saves and reportedly moon lights as a brick wall.
The bright performances from Carbone and Perri are especially encouraging for a Lions team that lacked production from the forward position last year.
“Both have done a good job,” Shaw said. “Carbone is more of a distributor while Perri is more of a big, fast kid who can score too. Both have helped us win games.”
Perri was very excited for the opportunity presented to him.
“We lost our starting forward, Ray Nelan, and coach asked (Vinnie and I) to step it up,” Perri said. “It felt great to score my first goal. Hopefully they just keep coming.”
Senior goalkeeper Matt Fredrick had plenty of time to himself in the Lions’ goal, collecting a few crosses but not having to make any saves for the win thanks to a strong defensive effort that showed signs of significant improvement over last year’s squad.
“Everyone’s been doing a good job individually (and) we’ve been playing together as a unit more than last year,” Shaw said. “We’ve been more organized.”
Although he’s only a freshman, Perri sees what Shaw sees.
“We’ve had a solid defense ever since I’ve been here,” Perri said. “I mean, really top-of-the-line. We have some great guys back there — Vince, Steve Cukar (etc.) — good guys, strong guys.”
A squad that conceded 1.95 goals last season has allowed an average of one per game through five matches this year, and part of the reason is how successful the Lions have been pressing opponents and forcing turnovers.
“When we press higher up the field, they end up having to kick the ball long back to our defenders,” Shaw said. “Not to take anything away from what (the defenders) have been doing, but pressing helps.”
Despite pressing high and outshooting the undefeated Beavers on Friday in both teams’ first game of the Osprey Open, the Lions fell victim to their own errant finishing and conceded a goal for the first time in 261 minutes to lose the match 2-0.
Converting opportunities was the difference in the team’s 3-1 win against previously undefeated Lebanon Valley a day later, with freshman midfielder Tokio Nakamoto scoring his first goal of his career to tie the game at 1-1 and Shaw sealing it with another late penalty kick for his fourth goal of the year.
The game-winner came off the foot of McEnroe, who took advantage of a goalkeeper mishap to score off a free kick from 40 yards out.
“I’m not sure what (McEnroe) was trying to do there,” Shaw said, laughing. “I’m not taking anything away from the goal, but the goalie screwed up. But when you put the ball in the box, that kind of stuff happens.”
The Lions next travel to Stevens Institute of Technology on Wednesday and kick off conference games with an afternoon contest at Ramapo College this Friday.
(09/05/12 6:29am)
[caption id="attachment_19227" align="alignright" width="221" caption="The College split a pair this weekend, but suffered another loss."]
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The men’s soccer team both received and meted out its fair share of frustration this week, suffering the loss of senior forward Ray Nelan in a forgettable game against Drew University, but also stymying Western Connecticut University for its first win of the season before of Wednesday’s home opener.
It will be tougher for the Lions (1-1) to make their playoff push lacking Nelan for the time being, who suffered a serious arm injury in a freak accident early at Drew, but senior midfielder Kevin Shaw is leading the way with two goals scored from his spot in the back of midfield.
“It feels good to score,” Shaw said. “Typically I haven’t always been much of a goal scorer and it’s something I worked hard on over the summer.”
Shaw and the rest of the midfield will be providing service to a different forward than expected over the coming weeks, and the change represents a shift in style at the top of the Lions’ 4-5-1 formation.
While head coach George Nazario calls Nelan a “modified forward” capable of using his speed to slip in behind the defense, temporary replacement junior Vinnie Carbone — labelled a forward on the official roster — is more likely to hold up the ball.
“Vinnie can score too, but he’s more of a ‘get the ball, hold it and get it to someone’ type of player,” Shaw said. “He’s not going to get the ball, take on everyone and score like Nelan. What he does well is distributing and making a play on the ball.”
Carbone’s ability to hold up the ball complemenets the Lions’ game plan of controlling games through possession.
“Our mode of business is patience — slow, methodical buildup,” Nazario said. “(It’s) kind of about frustrating the opponent. The more we hold the ball, the more we frustrate them.”
The Lions executed their game plan in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Western Connecticut University, as they outshot the Colonials by a 22-3 margin — 10-1 in shots on goal — and Shaw scored the game’s only goal off a cross from freshman midfielder Matt Taylor.
Keeping the Colonials off the ball and on the defensive allowed freshman goalkeeper Maciej Libucha to have a solid start to his College career, earning a clean sheet in his first-ever appearance.
“(Libucha’s performance) was good,” Shaw said. “I’ve seen him in practice and he’s good — we have three goalkeepers and I’m comfortable with all of them. He wasn’t tested too much, but he did what he had to do, he came out and made a few saves.”
There were fewer positive talking points to take away from the team’s 2-1 loss at 10-man Drew University, when the Lions came up flat in the first half and conceded goals on both sides of half time to go down into a 2-0 hole.
An unassisted, 80th-minute blast from outside the box by Shaw and a late red card on Drew proved to be too little, too late for the Lions, who expect an improved season from a playoff-less 2011.
“Realistically, our goal is to get back into the conference playoffs,” Nazario said. “Maybe if we’re good enough during the regular season we can get an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament. You don’t have to win the conference playoffs for that.”
With three games this week — including Wednesday’s home opener against Berkeley College — there is ample opportunity for the College to move above .500 before their games against conference opponents begin, with the first one coming on Sep. 15 vs. Ramapo College. That is a goal that they will certainly strive for.
For now, the focus is on this week’s schedule and Wednesday’s 7:30 p.m. home opener at the soccer complex. The team is excited to get to play in front of their fans for the first time.
“It should be a big game,” Shaw said before correcting himself. “It’s our first game at home, so it will be a big game.”
(08/28/12 5:36pm)
Predicted to finish ninth in a conference of 10 by the official NJAC preseason poll, the men’s soccer team has the opportunity to turn some heads by leaving behind a disappointing 2011 campaign and reclaiming past success under 18-year head coach George Nazario this season.
Six unfortunate one-goal losses doomed the College last fall in what ended up as a 5-8-4 season, with the Lions scoring 1.65 goals per game but allowing 1.94 — up from 1.42 of the year before, when they reached the NJAC title game.
Yet the Lions, who will be without seven graduated players from last year’s roster, will be getting a welcome addition to the team with the return of 2010 leading scorer Ray Nelan.
Nelan missed most of last season due to injury after scoring seven goals through 13 games in 2010, and the Lions’ playoff hopes improve significantly if the fifth-year senior can recover the form he displayed two years ago.
Joining Nelan in the attack will be senior midfielder Ryan Shaw (4 goals, 3 assists last season), junior midfielder Sean Casey (2g, 5a), and senior spark plug Taylor Gregory (3, 3a), who came off the bench for the Lions in 10 of his 16 appearances last fall.
Also returning will be most of the team’s defensive unit, including senior defenders Vince McEnroe and Sean Cunneen, who helped contribute to both of the Lions’ shutouts last season. McEnroe was an all-NJAC Honorable Mention in 2010, when he also picked up five assists.
Right behind the defense and in between the goalposts for the Lions will be returning seniors Matt Frederick (1.39 goals against average) and Aaron Utman (1.85), who each earned a shutout last season.
A shutout would help the Lions make some noise this Friday, when they open the season with a tough road test against Drew University at 7 p.m. , and they face Western Connecticut University on Saturday at 3 p.m.
(04/24/12 9:44pm)
It was a mixed week for the College’s tennis teams, as the men went 2-0 to extend their win streak to a semester-best five games while the women’s team split a pair of matches to close out their regular season.
It could not have been a much better week for the men, who rolled past Haverford College 8-1 and shutout Chestnut Hill (Division II) to improve to 10-3 ahead of Wednesday’s season finale.
The only point conceded was in the first position against Haverford, and excluding a loss to Villanova University (Division I) the Lions have won six in a row dating back to a triumph over No. 26 Franklin and Marshall College.
Head coach Scott Dicheck said it’s a hot streak which has been a reward for strong doubles play, an emphasis for both tennis programs as it sets the tone early.
“We did not play at the level we expected to at the beginning of the year,” Dicheck said. “The turnaround really started with the doubles game. We’ve looked great in doubles, it’s what has propelled us to this win streak – six in a row (against Division II and III teams).”
The 23rd-ranked women’s team had a few streaks of its own snapped during a 3-6 loss to fellow heavyweight No. 28 Trinity College. This includes a season-long undefeated record against Division II and III teams, before wrapping up the regular season with an 8-1 win against Muhlenberg College.
The Lions (15-2) lost two points to Trinity in doubles, were outscored 4-2 in singles, and suffered their first loss since falling to Villanova (Division I) on April 7th as a result.
“It was the first time we’ve lost a doubles point against a Division III team all year,” DiCheck said. “It did really hurt us, losing a point; we need to re-emphasize the start of the doubles.”
But the Lions rebounded by beating Muhlenberg and capping off a successful season which should give them confidence heading into the NCAA Division III championships, which they qualified for by winning the NJAC conference ealier this season.
“We’ve had a very good regular season,” DiCheck said. “Over the past few weeks we’ve had a few injuries, so we’re hoping to get a few players healthy again. For the rest of the players, we have to keep working.”