Box Score
NEWARK, NJ—NJIT combined 90 minutes of shutout defense with an unassisted goal by Rahim Stennett in the 62nd minute en route to a 1-0 men's soccer victory over visiting Rutgers Tuesday night on Lubetkin Field at J. Malcolm Simon Stadium.
The shutout was the first of the season for the Highlanders, who had allowed one goal in each of their two previous wins.
Stennett, who has three goals this season after scoring a team-best six in his NJIT debut last season, got Tuesday's game-winner through an impressive individual effort.
He gained control of the ball on the left wing about 25 yards off the goal line and veered hard to the middle as he was marked by one defender on the run. Gaining a half-step as he approached the goal area, Stennett shot from the top of the box, sending a hard ground shot inside the left post beyond the reach of the diving Rutgers keeper, Adam Klink, at 61:57.
“Rahim is capable of doing that every game,” said NJIT coach Pedro Lopes of the junior's solo effort in scoring the goal. “He's been doing a lot of that in the midfield in previous games and we've been working with him to do it more in and around the box. He made a nice effort and hit the target, like he's supposed to.”
Both teams played well on defense, marking well in the box and doing a good job clearing the ball when it did imperil the goal area.
Klink, a junior, made five saves for the Scarlet Knights (3-5-1). NJIT freshman John Ricketti, who has played every minute in goal for his team this season, made four saves in notching his first college shutout against Rutgers.
The overall shots favored Rutgers, 12-11, but the Highlanders had a similar slim advantage in shots on goal, 6-4. Rutgers had six corner kicks to two for NJIT, but that was not a good reflection of territorial advantage or overall ball possession.
The best chance of the night for Rutgers may have come in the 19th minute when a shot from junior Ibrahim Kamara hit the goal post.
NJIT (3-7) got off to a 2-1 start and earned its first regional ranking as a Division I program on September 13. But the Highlanders lost that night, 2-1, at Drexel on a late goal and had lost six in a row, a streak that included three one-goal losses with the deciding tally coming either late in regulation or in overtime.
The last two matches before Rutgers were a 3-2 overtime loss against Lafayette and a 2-1 loss to Saint Peter's on a goal in the 85th minute.
Facing their in-state Big East rival Rutgers, the Highlanders, who had played will in those losses, cleaned up their game a notch further and were rewarded.
“Before the game, we talked about believing we could win,” said Lopes, who is 2-2 NJIT head coach against the school where he was a two-time All-American player in the 1990s and a top assistant coach after that. “We talked about making every run and every pass count. There are still things we can do better, but the effort was impeccable.
“On defense, Devon (Newton) and Nico (Lue Young) did a good job. Whenever we broke down, they got us out of trouble. Jack (McVey) and Nate (D'Aversa) controlled the midfield and Rahim did a good job in front. Chris Fawzy also had a strong game.”
Fawzy nearly made something out of nothing late in the first half, doing what amounted to a split to extend his leg for a ball in the box and somehow getting off a shot as he was hitting the floor, forcing Klink to make the save in the 43rd minute.
NJIT, which has played its last three matches at home, will head to Hamden, Connecticut, for a non-conference match at Quinnipiac on Sunday, October 17, at 1 pm.
