Wagner is one of the teams the Highlanders have played in every season since becoming a varsity program in 2015, and NJIT is looking for their first win against the Seahawks.
ALL TIME SERIES
Wagner leads the all-time series 3-0, with the Highlanders falling to the Seahawks 7-2 in their first year.
Year two was much closer, with the Seahawks again coming out on top 10-8. The Highlanders were coming off their first win in program history against Dartmouth and started the game up 3-0 on Wagner at halftime, the first time they ever shutout a team for two periods. The Seahawks scored all of their goals in the second half, four in the third quarter to tie up the game 4-4 going into the final stanza. In the highest scoring quarter of the game, Wagner outscored the Highlanders 6-4 to secure the win.
Last year the Highlanders fell 11-4, and in that game
Aaron Forster broke the NJIT career goals record, held by Joe Lomeli, who was competing in his first year as a Seahawk after transferring from NJIT.
A LOOK AT THE SEAHAWKS
Wagner is 3-5 so far on the year, and just coming off a 15-3 win over Hampton on Monday. The Seahawks outscored their opponents 7-0 in the second to give them a 10-1 lead at half, and never relinquished their lead after that.
Picked to finish seventh in the NEC, Wagner has played one conference game so far this season, an 11-5 loss to Hobart on March 17. After they play the Highlanders the Seahawks will continue conference play.
Three players have double-digit points with Andrew Streilein (12g, 9a), Nick Acona (12g, 6a) and John Norton (13g, 1a). Senior Streilein has recorded five goals and seven assists against the Highlanders in the last three years.
Andrew Park has 29 ground balls and 19 caused turnovers, leading the team in both categories, and ranking sixth in the nation in turnovers per game (2.38).
Hank Ontiveros and Nick Warren have been the Seahawks go-to guys on the face-off circle, with Ontiveros posting a .512 win percentage and Warren .394.
Perhaps the Seahawks biggest threat on defense is goalie Matt Sefcik. Sekcik has started all eight games in goal for Wagner, and lead the nation with a .615 save percentage and third in the nation in saves per game with 13.28.
A LOOK AT THE HIGHLANDERS
The Highlanders looked good despite their 12-8 loss to Fairfield on Tuesday. It was the first time in two games NJIT scored more than five goals in a game.
Aaron Forster tallied his 100
th career point in the loss, with his first goal of the game in the third quarter and finished with two goals and an assist. Forster has 72 career goals and 30 career assists for 102 career points with five more games in his junior year, and all of his senior year to play.
Forster continues his point scoring streak now at 23 games that started in February of 2017, and leads the team in all offensive categories with 23 goals and eight assists for 31 points.
The Highlanders other top goal scorers come in
Cole Robillard and
Ryan Darrow. Robillard has score five of his 12 goals this season in the last two games and Darrow ranks third with eight goal and four assists.
Darrow tied the NJIT record for caused turnovers in a game against Fairfield, grabbing four.
With his assist against Fairfield, sophomore
Ryan Kaden moved up to second all-time in career assists with 15 behind Forster. Kaden has four goals and five assists on the season.
The 11 other goal scorers for the Highlanders are either freshman or sophomores.
Defender
John Tachon leads the team in ground balls with 45 and caused turnovers with 14.
In goal,
Nick Marzullo has started all 10 games for the Highlanders, and has 109 saves on the year with a .482 save percentage.
Alexzander Hunt came in for Marzullo during the Fairfield game and made a career-high eight saves in 24 minutes letting up only two goals. In four games Hunt has 18 saves and a .562 save percentage.
