Oct. 6, 2007

Box Score

NEWARK - Gustav Warfving's goal in the 78th minute pulled the NJIT men's soccer even with Saint Joseph's (PA), 1-1, and the teams fought to a standstill through the rest of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime Saturday afternoon on Lubetkin Field.

The visiting Hawks had scored about 30 minutes earlier--2:15 after a scoreless first half-- before Warfving delivered his second goal of the season, which ultimately produced the first tie of the season for both teams.

Saint Joe's got on the board at 47:15 after the NJIT defense had difficulty clearing a ball about 12 yards in front of the Highlander goal. The Hawks' Travis Gast controlled the ball and headed it down to a free Michael McInaw, whose ground shot from straight on went into the goal.

The 1-0 lead held up for Saint Joseph's until 77:55, when Warfving ran onto a strong pass out of the midfield from Erik Magnusson and beat visiting goalkeeper Bryan Benedict one-on-one.

Magnusson's through ball went ahead from the 40-yard line and the streaking Warfving, who managed to stay onside, ran past the defenders and fired inside the left post from 12 yards away to beat the diving Benedict.

Magnusson has assisted on both of Warfving's goals and Warfving has assisted on two of Magnusson's team-leading three goals this season.

"Erik and Gustav have a great partnership," said NJIT coach Pedro Lopes of the sophomores who hail from the same part of Sweden and are roommates at NJIT. "They do a good job feeding off of each other."

Both goalkeepers had solid games. NJIT's Josh Osit, who was unable to get a piece of the shot that became the Saint Joe's goal, made a season-best 10 saves for the Highlanders. Benedict finished with five saves for the visitors.

Although the first half was scoreless, Saint Joseph's had a strong territorial edge in the opening 45 minutes, outshooting the Highlanders. 11-4 overall and forcing Osit to make eight of his 10 saves.

Over the final 65 minutes, the overall shots were a more manageable 8-7 for the Hawks and NJIT had five shots on goal to three for the visitors.

Despite being outshot in the first half, NJIT had the best scoring chance for either side, a hard blast by Magnusson that hit the crossbar from 15 yards out in the final minute.

Barely a minute into the second half, the Hawks had a near-miss when Colin Baker's open shot from in close went wide right. Saint Joe's followed with its goal about a later.

NJIT missed on a solid bid in the 60th minute when Osvaldo Perez carried the ball from left wing, beat his defender and sent a cross to Pat Amato, whose header went over the top.

Each team had chances in the first overtime. About a minute in, Perez sent the ball from the left of the box across the goalmouth, where the diving Benedict was able to deflect it at the last moment.

Saint Joe's missed out in the 94th minute when Patrick Duddy carried the ball into the goal area and shot wide right from 15 yards away.

"We've been talking to the players about focus--focusing on the task at hand on every play," said Lopes. "We did a pretty decent job, but we lost focus on clearing a ball and it ended up costing us a goal. I'm pleased that we fought back and got a deserved tie."

Having earned the draw, the Highlanders will face on of their marquee non-conference games on Wednesday when they travel to Rutgers for a 7 pm game in Piscataway at Yurcak Field.