Box Score
EASTON, PA—All of the scoring took place within a 1:09 span in the final 21 minutes in a 2-1 men's soccer victory for host Lafayette over visiting NJIT Friday night at Mike Bourger Field at Oaks Stadium.
The win raised the Leopards to 2-0 in the young season, while NJIT is 0-2, with both losses coming on the road against teams from the Patriot League.
The Highlanders lost by an identical 2-1 score in their opener at Army three days earlier. Both defeats have seen NJIT and its opponent play a scoreless first half, followed in order by the opponent scoring first, NJIT quickly tying and then the opponent getting the game-winner in short order.
At Army, the timing was: Army goal at 62:30; NJIT tying goal 38 seconds later; and, Army game-winner 6:49 later.
At Lafayette, the goals were bunched even closer. Lafayette got on the board at 69:30. NJIT answered 44 seconds later and Lafayette broke the tie for good a mere 25 seconds after that.
Both Leopards who figured in the scoring were freshmen. Blake Fink scored first, assisted by classmate Sean Peckham to make it 1-0 for Lafayette.
The Highlanders pulled back even quickly, as Rahim Stennett scored his first NJIT goal unassisted at 70:14. Stennett, a sophomore who was recruited with an eye toward improving NJIT's attack, was a redshirt freshman at national powerhouse Maryland in 2007 and then played at Cincinnati State Tech, a two-year school, in 2008, before transferring to NJIT, where he is an electrical engineering major.
Peckham, who had assisted on Lafayette's first goal, then struck himself, delivering an unassisted score at 70:39.
Lafayette goalkeeper Philip Nelson finished with three saves, including one off a shot by NJIT's Osvaldo Perez with less than eight minutes remaining.
NJIT keeper Ryan Sutherland was credited with one save.
The total shots favored the Leopards, 10-6, but NJIT had a 6-4 edge in the second half. The Highlanders put four shots on goal to three on goal for the home team. The corner kicks were 5-0 for Lafayette.
Next up for the Highlanders is their home opener, a challenging contest against one of the East's top mid-major programs, Monmouth.
The Hawks won last year's Northeast Conference regular season crown and are 2-0 this season with wins over strong foes Seton Hall and Fairfield. Monmouth will come to Newark on Sunday for a 1 pm contest against the Highlanders on Lubetkin Field.
