Box Score

Ewing, NJ … Senior Kevin Shaw (Brookside, NJ/West Morris Mendham) continues his incredible season for The College of New Jersey men's soccer team as he registered his third hat trick of the season to lead the Lions to a 4-1 victory over New Jersey City University.

The win supplies TCNJ (10-5-2, 5-2-1 NJAC) with three more crucial points in the New Jersey Athletic Conference standings as they battle to improve their position in the standings and subsequently host an opening round playoff game.

Shaw also assisted on the first goal of the game. Freshman Sean Etheridge (Oakland, NJ/Ramapo) scored his fifth goal of the season and second game-winner midway through the first half. Shaw found the back of the net with 1:18 left in the period for his first tally of the day. He curled in a free kick to give the Lions a 2-0 advantage.

Both teams fought hard fter the intermission, but Shaw struck again in the 78^th minute to stretch the lead to 3-0. Four minutes later, freshman Nick Costelloe (Freehold, NJ/Freehold Twp.) sent a pass along the ground from the right side. Shaw collected and then deposited the shot for his 18^th goal of the season. That is the most goals in a season by a TCNJ player in over 20 years. Mike Edwards netted 22 tallies in 1992.

Aaron Utman (Pennington, NJ/Hopewell Valley) faced 11 shots and made five stops in goal for the Lions. The senior goalkeeper is now 8-3-1 in net this season.

TCNJ visits Rowan University on Wednesday night at 7:30 in the final game of its regular season schedule. The Profs are in the midst of a late surge as they have captured three of their last four conference games.

Note: Rutgers-Newark defeated William Paterson University 3-2 on Saturday to stay even with TCNJ with 16 points in the standings. Richard Stockton College (18) points and Montclair State University (14 points) square off tonight at 6 p.m.