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 Kayo Emojong |
Nov. 16, 2007
FARMVILLE, VA - Atlantic Soccer Conference regular season champion Florida Atlantic defeated NJIT, 1-0, ending the 2007 men's soccer season for the Highlanders in the opening round of the ASC postseason championship tournament Friday afternoon at Longwood University.
Host and number-two seed Longwood was slated to take on third-seeded Adelphi, the defending champion, in Friday's second semifinal match, with the winner facing Florida Atlantic in Sunday's title match.
NJIT, which completed its third season as a championship-eligible member of the ASC, marked its first-ever qualification for the four-team conference championship tournament with Friday's match.
The game's only goal was scored by junior Igor Santos of Florida Atlantic on a rebound that he shot into to the lower left corner of the goal at 21:29. Jesse Kehoe was credited with an assist on the goal.
Santos was a thorn in NJIT's side in both meetings this season, having scored both goals in FAU's 2-0 regular-season win in Newark back on September 21.
Owl goalkeeper Phillip Lamarre, who shut out NJIT in the regular season, did it again on Friday, blanking the Highlanders while making three saves.
Going back to the teams' first meeting in 2006, a 2-0 win for FAU in Boca Raton, Lamarre, a sophomore, has not allowed a goal in 270 career minutes against the Highlanders.
He was the second-team all-ASC goalkeeper this season. Friday's shutout was the sixth of the season for Lamarre, who has played every minute in goal and allowed 24 goals in 19 matches for the 10-7-2 Owls.
Josh Osit, the NJIT goalkeeper, made five saves to go with the one goal allowed.
The overall shots were 11-3 for Florida Atlantic, while the shots on goal favored the Owls, 6-3. The corner kicks were 5-1 for FAU.
The NJIT shots on goal came from Kayo Emojong, who forced two saves, and from Osvaldo Perez, who had one shot on goal.
NJIT's 2007 season was very similar statistically to its 2006 season. This season, the Highlanders had a team goals against average of 1.75, up just a bit from 1.68 in 2006. On the offensive end, NJIT scored 12 goals after getting 11 in 2007, but that number remains too low for significant improvement in the wins column.
Scoring the first goal made a huge difference for NJIT, which is a solid defensive team that plays well with the lead.
Facing two of the elite teams on its 2007 schedule, NJIT, indeed, scored first and it resulted in the two most impressive results on the season.
Back on September 7, the Highlanders scored first and then frustrated a consensus preseason Top 25 San Diego State team in San Diego. NJIT scored in the 67th minute and then sealed the deal against the Aztecs with just over a minute left to score a 2-0 win.
The loss knocked San Diego State from the national Top 25, but the Aztecs followed their loss to NJIT by going 7-0-1 over the next eight matches and they re-emerged in the national rankings. The tie and the last three wins in the streak came against four teams ranked in the national Top 25, including #8 California (3-2 San Diego State win) and #8 UCLA (1-0 Aztec win).
If San Diego State wins its regular season finale against Washington on Sunday, the Aztecs will finish second in the powerful Pac-10 Conference.
Facing another elite program on October 10, the Highlanders scored first against Rutgers and the 1-0 lead held up into the 74th minute before Rutgers rallied to claim a 2-1 win.
Looking ahead, 11 of NJIT's 12 goals in 2007 were scored by non-seniors. Among the 11 goals were six from sophomore Erik Magnusson, who set a new season mark for goals in NJIT's Division I era.
The mark Magnusson surpassed was five goals by Eddie Romero in 2005. Romero, who played at Temple in 2006, but returned to NJIT as a transfer, sat out this season under NCAA transfer rules, but he is eligible to return to competition in 2008.
On the final line of defense, the starting goalkeeper, Osit is slated to return as a senior in 2008.
