BURLINGTON, VT--Vermont sophomore Noah Egan scored the game-winning goal in the final minute to give Vermont a 2-1 America East Conference win over visiting NJIT on Friday afternoon at Virtue Field. 

The Catamounts picked up its first win of the season, improving to 1-0-1 on the year while the Highlanders dropped its third in a row, moving to 1-3-1 overall, 1-2-0 in the league.

"We have to get used to a lot of different things in this new conference we are in," head coach Fernando Barboto added postgame.  "The America East teams that we have experienced thus far play a style that we never saw in the ASUN Conference.  We are learning more each, understanding weather conditions and style of play."

Vermont struck first in the ninth minute off a low pass from Arian Pilja to Alex Nagy, near the goal line, who sent a pass back into the center of the box, finding Evan Rouleau who drove home the first goal of the match into the left side of the net.

The Highlanders knotted the game in the 65th minute with a goal from Jose Adames from 25 yards out.  Graduate student Tomas Jorge chipped a feed to the left side and Adames worked his way through a defender and scored the equalizer into the top right corner of the net.  The goal for Adames was his first of the season.

NJIT came close to taking the lead in the 72nd minute as Luc Smith found Sergio Pita sprinting up the seam who blasted a line drive at Catamount keeper Nate Silveira from close range but Silveira made a diving save to keep the 1-1 tie.

As the clock ticked inside of the final minute, Nagy hooked a left-footed corner kick in front of the net where Egan knocked home a header past Highlander keeper Samuel Reisgys.    

Vermont held a slight edge in overall shots (11-9) as senior Regsan Watkin paced NJIT with four total shots.

NJIT will return to action on Tuesday, March 23 when the Highlanders host Binghamton at 3:30pm on Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium.