BUFFALO, NY—Ryan Schroen's successful penalty kick in the 74th minute was all the scoring for either team, as Canisius won its season opener Sunday afternoon, topping visiting NJIT 1-0 in men's soccer.
 
The defeat in Buffalo completed a frustrating opening weekend for the visiting Highlanders in Western New York. They opened the 2015 season with a 2-1 loss Friday night at St. Bonaventure when the deciding goal scored on a rare (for soccer) "buzzer-beater" just ahead of the horn that signaled the end of the first overtime period.
 
Schroen, a senior defender, took the pk after teammate Francesco Strangio was taken down on a foul in the penalty area. Schroen's goal was the first of his career.
 
The man of the match for the victorious Golden Griffins was on the other end of the field. Senior goalkeeper Andrew Coughlin shut out the Highlanders, extending his school-record scoreless streak in goal to 380 minutes in a run that began with his final 290 minutes of the 2014 season.
 
Coughlin made four saves for the clean sheet against NJIT, but one of them was a game-changer as he made a diving stop to turn away a header off of a corner kick by Rickardo Oldhman of the Highlanders just a minute after Canisius had scored its goal.
 
The senior goalkeeper set a Canisius record in 2014 with a 0.85 goals against average in 18 games after playing his first two collegiate seasons at Syracuse.
 
The shot was one of three on goal for Oldham, the U-23 Jamaican international, who is in his first season with the Highlanders.
 
The overall shots favored Canisius, 20-7, but the shots on goal were much closer, with the Griffs holding a 5-4 edge in that category. NJIT had a 3-2 lead in corner kicks.
 
Each keeper, Coughlin for Canisius and Christian Foust for the Highlanders, posted four saves.
 
The Highlanders will resume on Saturday, September 5, when they head back to upstate New York, this time to the Hudson Valley for a 7 pm game at Marist in Poughkeepsie. The Highlanders edged Marist 1-0 last September 6 in Newark.