WASHINGTON, DC—NJIT men's soccer, playing its last Sun Belt Conference away match, broke into the conference wins column with a convincing 3-0 victory at Howard Saturday afternoon.
 
The Highlanders, who will play their last two Sun Belt regular season games at home, are 1-2 in the conference and 4-7-4 after scoring their first overall victory since October 3. That win three weeks ago came against two-time defending Northeast Conference champion St. Francis Brooklyn, which was ranked 22nd in the nation at the time. Since then, the Highlanders had been 0-2-2, including two losses in the Sun Belt before they defeated Howard (0-3 Sun Belt; 0-15-2 overall).
 
Next season, NJIT will make the transition to its new home in the Atlantic Sun Conference, where men's soccer will join 11 other Highlander teams which are already full-time members of the A-Sun.
 
The Highlanders scored once in the first half and twice in the span of 23 seconds late in the second half to seal the victory over Howard.
 
Sophomore Mamadou Guirassy gave NJIT all the scoring it would need with his third goal of the season, an unassisted tally in the 15th minute. Guirassy's game-winner came when he knocked the ball home after Howard goalkeeper Sam Howard deflected a crossing pass out to Guirassy.
 
The 1-0 score held until 80:44 for Jimmy Myers, the senior captain of the Highlanders, scored his second goal of the season. Junior Victor Kausch struck for NJIT at 81:07.
 
NJIT junior Marco Luna made five saves in posting his fourth clean sheet since taking over as the first-choice keeper for the Highlanders 10 games ago. Howard, a graduate student who is in his first season with the Bison, made three saves.
 
The Highlanders will return to action on Friday at 7 pm, when they host another Sun Belt match against Georgia Southern on Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium.