Box score
GARDEN CITY, NY—The 2010 NJIT men's soccer season ended the same way the previous two years ended—with a loss to Adelphi in the Atlantic Soccer Conference playoff semifinals. This time, it was 2-0 win for the Panthers, who sent the Highlanders to defeat on Friday night.
Adelphi scored twice in the first half en route to its second win this season over NJIT, which closes out 2010 with a 4-13-1 record.
NJIT was seeded third in this year's postseason tournament for the first time since it joined the ASC. In 2008 and 2009, the Highlanders had to win a play-in game against Howard in order to advance to the semifinals against Adelphi and then lost both semis to the Panthers by scores of 3-0.
After Friday's loss, NJIT coach Pedro Lopes called the result “a fair score”. According to Lopes, the Highlanders had the better of the play leading up to Adelphi's first goal, scored at 19:15 by Alexander Kousnetsov, assisted by Brandon Stoneham.
“The goal came against the run of play,” said Lopes. “They did a good job clearing our shot and played a long ball ahead to set up the goal. You have to give Adelphi credit, they counterattacked well and took advantage of their chances.
“We continued to compete, but the second Adelphi goal came off of one of their best possessions. They played the ball and their guy (Michael Aquino) took a real good shot that scored inside the left post.”
The goal by Aquino, his first of year, was assisted by John Koutsounadis at 37:18.
Those were the only two shots to beat NJIT freshman goalkeeper John Ricketti, who was credited with five saves. The Panthers also hit two posts in the match. Ricketti played every minute in goal for his team in his debut season with the Highlanders.
Adelphi goalkeeper Thorne Holder needed one save to post his second shutout this season against NJIT (Adelphi beat the Highlanders in the regular season, 4-0, on October 30, also on Long Island).
The only save for Holder came in the 68th minute off of a hard shot by Pete Walker. “Pete took a great shot and the keeper made a big save,” said Lopes. “He's very good and if we'd scored there, it would have been 2-1 with enough time for us to tie. It might have been a game-changing play.
“We had some other chances that we just missed. Nils (Warfving) just missed getting to a ball when he was open in the box and Papa (Ciss) took a good shot from the top of the box that just missed its target. We kept competing, even when we were down 2-0, but we couldn't get a goal.”
Lopes praised a couple of his players who were less than 100 percent healthy. Jack McVey, one of two Highlanders voted onto the all-ASC first team and an extremely active two-way player in the midfield, hurt his ankle in the early going, but stayed in until well into the second half. “He was limping more and more as the game went on, but he wanted to keep trying,” said Lopes. “We missed having Jack with his full mobility in a big game against a good team.”
Angel Gomez also played well. “He's been battling injuries for the last few weeks,” the coach reported. “But he gave us a good effort tonight.”
The total shots were 15-6 for Adelphi, including 7-1 in shots on goal.
Three NJIT senior starters played their final career games for the Highlanders. Captain Devon Newton, who has played hurt himself since sustaining a knee injury in NJIT's annual alumni game last month; Oshane Moodie, a second-team all-ASC honoree; and Pasquale Amato all made their final appearances on the defensive backline for the Highlanders.
Adelphi, 10-6-2, will look to repeat as conference champion when it takes on Houston Baptist, this year's regular season champion, on Sunday at 1 pm.
HBU advanced to the championship match on penalty kicks after tying #4 Howard, 0-0, through 110 minutes in Friday's other semifinal. Adelphi and Houston Baptist tied, 1-1, in two overtimes in the regular season finale on Monday, November 8.
