NEWARK, NJ—NJIT scored a season-high four goals, including three in the second half, for a 4-0 men's Atlantic Soccer Conference win over visiting Howard on a gusty, rain-soaked Saturday night on Lubetkin Field.

Saturday's four goals topped the previous season high for the Highlanders, which was set in a 3-2 win at Manhattan on September 13. The scoring output against Howard was the second-highest total in five years of Division I competition for NJIT, surpassed only by a 5-0 win against Iona in the 2006 season opener.

The Highlanders, who were playing their final ASC regular season match of the season, gave a convincing effort to follow up their 2-1 non-conference upset win over Rutgers in the previous game three days earlier.

“I'm very pleased the team kept playing the same way—intense, workmanlike,” said NJIT coach Pedro Lopes. “We had no letdowns following the big win against Rutgers.”

All four NJIT goals came from different players, starting with the only tally of the first half on the second goal of the season by Chico Lugo.

Eddie Romero made it 2-0 on a penalty kick. Gustav Warfving quickly added another insurance goal. And senior captain Kevin Blanco picked up NJIT's fourth goal.

NJIT also had three assists from three different men so that seven players ended up on the scoresheet in the strong team effort. Kayo Emojong got an assist on the third goal, before Thomas Dores and Chris Fawzy each notched their first career assists on Blanco's capper.

NJIT senior goalkeeper Ryan Sutherland picked up his first shutout of 2008 and the second of his career. His first shutout came in NJIT's first-ever Division I win, a 2-0 victory over Manhattan on September 10, 2005.

The team statistics were close, with NJIT enjoying a slim overall shots advantage, 18-16, to go with an 11-7 edge in shots on goal. The corner kicks were 7-4 for the Highlanders and each goalkeeper, Sutherland and Howard's Adisa Bekoe, made seven saves.

On a night so gusty that a tent was blown off the sidelines and up into the bleachers before the fans arrived, NJIT chose to play against the wind in the first half, but still managed the only score of the first 45 minutes.

In the 12th minute, Luis Granizo centered a ground ball that tipped off of a Howard defender and onto the feet of a streaking Lugo, who took it in stride and fired it into the back of the net. At first, the goal was disallowed for offsides, but after a brief conference with his assistant referee at the sideline, referee Vladimir Horanic pointed to the center circle and the goal counted.

Playing with the wind at their backs in the second half, NJIT, undeterred by the steady rain that sometimes came down in sheets, dominated against the visiting Bison, who were playing the first of their four scheduled ASC regular season matches.

“I told them at halftime that we needed to play quickly and we needed to make (Howard) defend,” Lopes said. “We re-established our passing game and effort in their half of the field and it paid off.

Despite a decided edge in play, the Highlanders, who have been burned too often this year by momentary defensive lapses, still needed insurance. And they got it in the 59th minute, when Romero broke in on goal and was fouled by Bekoe, the Howard keeper.

Romero took the penalty and blasted the ball straight and high, just under the crossbar past a diving Bekoe at 58:38.

Lopes, who considers 2-0 to still be a dangerous score, said: “I was really hoping to get it to 3-0.” His wait last just 90 seconds, with the third Highlander goal arriving after Emojong sent a pass from the middle of the field and outside the box in to Warfving, who was free on the right side and scored from 12 yards away.

Blanco capped the scoring at 80:38 in a beautiful display of teamwork from Dores and Fawzy, each of whom had a decent chance for a shot on goal, but sent the ball on to the next man, who had an even better chance. The goal was the second of the year for Blanco, NJIT's tenacious captain.

NJIT will play its final away contest of the regular season on Tuesday, when the Highlanders visit Bucknell in Lewisburg, PA, for a 7 pm game.