Box Score


Madison, NJ … An offensive outburst in the first half led The College of New Jersey men's soccer team to its fifth win of the season as they held off Farleigh Dickinson University-Florham 4-3 on Wednesday afternoon in Madison, NJ.

Senior Kevin Shaw (Brookside, NJ/West Morris Mendham) registered his second hat trick of the season and now has 11 goals in just seven games in 2013. Sophomore Tokio Nakamoto (Waldwick, NJ/Waldwick) scored a goal and assisted on two of Shaw's tallies as the Lions (5-1-1) have now won five of seven games entering their New Jersey Athletic Conference opener this Saturday at Ramapo.

Senior Tyler Higgins (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North) and freshman Sean Etheridge (Oakland, NJ/Ramapo) also had assists, while goalkeeper Aaron Utman (Pennington, NJ/Hopewell Valley) needed just one save to record his fourth victory of the season in net.

Shaw got TCNJ on the scoreboard just 6:56 into the game. He took a serve from Nakamoto and found the back for his ninth goal of the season. It marked the fourth game Shaw scored in the opening ten minutes of play.

Less than four minutes later, Nakamoto was on the receiving end as Etheridge delivered a pass that resulted in a shot between the posts to make it a 2-0 game.

The Lions stretched the lead to three goals when Shaw scored in the 23^rd minute. The Devils, however, answered back with their first goal of the game with just two ticks remaining in the opening period. Brian Nazari followed up a shot off the crossbar from Jonathan Trujillo to put FDU on the board.

Higgins found Shaw just over 10 minutes after the intermission to complete his hat trick. It was the 25^th goal of his career, which ranks him 10^th all-time in program history. Shaw has been lighting up opposing defenses since the season opened and entered the game ranked 16^th nationally in points per game at an average of 2.67. After his three goals on Wednesday, he sits second in the nation at 3.14 points per game.

The Devils (3-3-1) made it interesting as they converted a penalty to cut the deficit to 4-2. An unassisted goal by Luke Devine made it one-goal margin, but Lions' defense held strong the final 18 minutes of play to secure the road win

TCNJ visits Ramapo College on Saturday for a 1 p.m. conference match. The Roadrunners own a record of 3-2-1 after defeating Medgar Evers College 5-0 on Wednesday.