Box Score Box score
TEANECK, NJ—Fairleigh Dickinson, ranked #22 in the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America national poll, scored in the 29th minute and made the lone tally hold up the rest of the way for a 1-0 men's soccer victory over visiting NJIT Wednesday night on FDU's University Stadium.
FDU has started the 2013 regular season with 1-0 wins over Drexel, Lehigh, and NJIT, plus a 3-0 win against well-regarded Princeton immediately before the Knights stopped the Highlanders. The Knights also won a pair of 1-0 preseason exhibition games.
The successful defense-oriened start is not a surprise for the Knights, who grabbed headlines in college soccer last November, winning two road games against ranked teams to reach the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament before finally losing in overtime at North Carolina.
The magical 2012 postseason run was fueled by FDU's defense, too. The Knights tied their two Northeast Conference Tournament games, 1-1 each time, but advanced on penalty kicks. Once in the NCAAs, they beat St. John's 1-0, before topping Saint Louis 2-1 in overtime and then losing at North Carolina in overtime, 1-0.
NJIT falls to 1-3-1 on the season with a pair of one-goal defeats against National Top 25 sides. The Highlanders opened with a 2-1 loss at St. John's, then ranked 19th. The Red Storm subsequently beat powerful Akron last weekend, which moved SJU up to #12 in the latest poll. Indeed, all of NJIT's wins and losses have been decided by one goal and the tie was a 1-1 overtime result at VMI last week.
Wednesday night's only goal on a muggy night with temperatures hovering near 90 degrees, was scored, unassisted, by FDU's first-year sophomore Tchamy Dantse Dantse, who found the back of the net for the second time in his first US college season.
Dantse Dantse, an imposing 6-foo-5, 220-pounder from Germany, was named earlier in the day as Player of the Week in the Metropolitan area by the website BigAppleSoccer.com and was tabbed as Northeast Conference Player of the Week before that.
Dantse Dantse's decisive goal Wednesday came out of a scramble that followed a corner kick by Fairleigh's Anders Vest-Hansen. The official time was 28:39.
The winners had a huge edge in shots and corner kicks. The margin in total shots was 20-3 for FDU and the corner kicks were 12-3. The shots on goal were closer, with the Knights shooting on frame seven times to three for the Highlanders.
Senior goalkeeper Jacob Lissek, named to the NSCAA All-Region third team a year ago, backstopped Fairleigh's stout defense with three saves to log his fourth clean sheet on the season, which he has opened with 360 unblemished minutes.
NJIT used two goalkeepers. Starter
Alexander Czempik went the first 45 minutes and made two saves while allowing the one goal. Freshman
David Tuchinsky made his regular season college debut between the posts, making three saves without a goal over the final 45 minutes.
Tuchinsky was actually beaten in the 57th minute by FDU's Simon Doherty, but the ball was kept out of the goal on a save by an NJIT defender.
It was at least the third time this season that someone other than the keeper has prevented a goal in the Highlanders defense.
Joshua Mercer blocked a shot at the goal post against St. John's and
Cristian Marcel headed a ball off the crossbar to prevent another score goal in NJIT's 1-0 win against George Washington last Sunday afternoon.
Despite being outshot by a wide margin, the Highlanders applied late pressure and came close to equalizing on an attempt in the 84th by
Marko Drljic that was thwarted by Lissek.
NJIT, which had a win and a tie in its two matches preceding the FDU game, looks to get back on track Sunday at 1 pm when it hosts St. Bonaventure on Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium.
The 1 pm start is new, with kickoff moved up to help St. Bonaventure, which has to bus back to Olean, NY, in the upstate area south of Buffalo. The men's game 1 pm vs. St. Bonaventure will be followed at 4 pm with a women's game that has NJIT entertaining Rider.
