Box Score
JERSEY CITY, NJ.Junior midfielder EDISON BILBAO (Carteret, NJ/St. Benedict's Prep) had a goal and an assist, and freshman midfielder EDUARDO TEJADA (North Arlington, NJ/North Arlington) and senior forward MARCELO CARPIO (Clifton, NJ/Clifton) each netted second half goals as #16 ranked New Jersey City University won the 2007 New Jersey Athletic Conference regular season championship, blanking #7 ranked The College of New Jersey, 3-0, in a New Jersey Athletic Conference game on Saturday at the Robert L. McNulty Memorial Soccer Field.
NJCU (14-3-0, 7-1-0 NJAC), which shared the NJAC regular season title in 1961 and 1968, wins its first outright conference regular season title in the 49-year history of the program and with it, the No. 1 overall seed and home field advantage throughout the NJAC Tournament, which opens next weekend. The Gothic Knights will receive a first round bye in the six-team tournament. There was no tournament in 1961 and 1968.
NJCU wins for the sixth game in a row and 11th time in 12 outings, while improving to 47-7-1 at home over the last five seasons and 9-1-0 at home this year. The Knights entered the game ranked #1 in the NCAA Division III Metro Region and #16 nationally by the National Soccer Coaches Association
of America (NSCAA). The victory should be enough to propel NJCU to its highest national ranking in the history of the program, which is currently 9th by D3Kicks.com and 11th by the NSCAA.
The win was NJCU's second consecutive victory over a nationally ranked team in as many games, as TCNJ, ranked #7 by the NSCAA, drops its second straight game to fall to 10-4-3. At 5-1-2 in the NJAC, the Lions drop their first conference game of the year. NJCU defeated #10 ranked Montclair State
University on October 13 by an identical 3-0 margin.
Overall, it was the 13th time in school history NJCU has defeated a nationally-ranked opponent, the ninth time since 2005 and the sixth time that opponent has been ranked among the Top 10. Three of the 13 wins have come against TCNJ when it was ranked. The Lions still lead the all-time series, 44-4-2 (two missing results).
NJCU freshman keeper ANDRE VIOLA (Clifton, NJ/St. Joseph's Regional (Montvale)) finished with four saves to notch his eighth shutout of the season. It was his fourth consecutive shutout and fifth in six games, and he extended his scoreless minutes streak to 363:54. NJCU also had a team save.
NJCU is one game shy of matching the most consecutive shutouts in school history.
In what can be considered among the most significant victories in program history, it was a player making a strong bid for All-America honors that scored what proved to be the game-winner. Bilbao put NJCU ahead 1-0 just 6:42 into the contest with his third game-winner of the year when he received a thru ball from the right sideline by junior midfielder MIGUEL FONTAN (Lyndhurst, NJ/Lyndhurst) to create a breakaway on the right wing, and finished his ninth goal of the season by flipping a shot over charging
TCNJ senior keeper Steve Scutellaro (Brick, NJ/Brick Memorial) inside the right post.
The goal also was Bilbao's 25th point of the season and moved him into sixth place in school history with 61 points. The assist for Fontan, who made a heading team save earlier in the game, was his second of the year. NJCU led 1-0 at the half despite TCNJ owning a 9-5 edge in shots.
But NJCU tallied two important insurance goals in the middle to latter stages of the second period. At 70:33, Bilbao sent a thru ball onto the left wing from the midfield circle, that created a 2-on-1 breakaway for the Knights. Tejada finished his fifth goal of the year by firing in a running one-timer from the wing. It was Bilbao's seventh assist.
On senior day at NJCU, Carpio capped the scoring at 81:26 when he stole an errant pass from the TCNJ defense to open a breakaway on the left wing. There, he buried an unassisted 12-yard shot for his 10th goal of the season, to match his single-season career high set in 2005. He moved into a tie for 6th place in school history in goals (23) and eighth place in points (55).
In a game where NJCU barely outshot TCNJ, 14-13, the final margin could have been far greater, as the Knights missed two uncontested breakaways against Scutellaro, who finished with three saves for the Lions. NJCU was also whistled for 15 offsides-the most on record in the history of the program
against an NJAC opponent.
NJCU will return to action on Monday, October 22 at 3 p.m. with a road non-conference game against SUNY-Farmingdale in Farmingdale, NY. TCNJ next plays on October 24 with a 7:30 p.m. NJAC road game at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ.
