Senior Day Insert

Ewing, NJ … The College of New Jersey men's soccer team did not get the desired outcome on the field on Wednesday night, but they did obtain the season result they set out achieve.
 
Despite a 3-1 loss to #10 Rowan University in Lions Stadium, the TCNJ (8-8-2, 4-4-1 NJAC) qualified for the 2016 New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship Tournament. The Lions will play at Stockton University this Saturday at a time to be determined.
 
With the victory, the Profs (15-1-1, 7-1-1 NJAC) earned the two seed in the tourney and Rutgers-Newark finished first in the NJAC standings. Both teams will receive a first-round bye. Montclair State will travel to Rutgers-Camden in the fourth and fifth seed game.
 
Rowan took a 2-0 lead on a pair of goals in the opening period. In the 20^th minutes of the match, Tyler Logar chipped a ball over the line of defense and Shane Doherty ran onto the pass to gain a 1 v 1 on TCNJ goalkeeper Dan Walsh (Waldwick, NJ/Waldwick). Doherty slipped the shot into the left corner for his 11^th goal of the season.
 
Doherty got free again in the 37^th minute. He ripped a shot off of a pass from Pete Hall that Walsh stopped. Doherty jumped on the rebound and slotted a left-footed shot into the right corner to extend the lead to 2-0.
 
Senior Thomas Hogue (Ridgefield Park, NJ/Bergen Catholic) got the Lions on the board in the 61^st minute. He received a long pass from Matt Decker (Warren, NJ/Watchung Hills) into the box. Hogue settled, and knocked a low shot that keeper Kyle Dennis got his fingers on, but couldn't stop. It was the team-high ninth goal of the year for Hogue.
 
With 15:17 remaining in the game, however, Jake Connors had a loose ball roll out to him near the top of the box. He cracked a one-time shot just inside the left post to make it a 3-1 game.
 
Walsh finished with four saves in the game, while Dennis stopped six shots.

At halftime of the match, the soccer program honored six seniors, who played in the final regular season game in Lions Stadium. Domenic Polidoro, Matt Taylor, Nick Costelloe, Sean Etheridge, Thomas Hogue, and Clayton Flon were introduced and thanks for the exceptional careers on and off the field. Each senior is a member of the Dean's List at TCNJ.