NEWARK, N.J. (10/18/14) – Santiago Roncal scored twice in regulation and Kenny Rocha added the golden goal in overtime as the Kean University men's soccer team earned a 3-2 victory over NJAC-leading No. 19 Rutgers-Newark on Saturday night. Roncal's game-tying goal came in the 89th minute and Rocha's game-winner in the 108th.
Rutgers-Newark was on a 14-match winning streak, the longest in NCAA Division III this season.
The Scarlet Raiders, who suffered their first NJAC setback and are now 6-1-0 in the conference, struck early with a goal at 4:57 from Raphael Araujo with an assist from Charlie O'Connell. The Cougars had to play catch-up all night and led for a grand total of zero seconds of gametime in the match.
10 minutes later, Roncal teamed with Pablo Valle for the equalizer after Kean's only corner kick of the first half. The ball was loose in the middle after an initial volley by Valle was saved. Roncal sent it home on a one-timer off the goalkeeper's hands.
The teams would play the rest of the half to a draw.
In the second, Arajo struck again when he deposited a penalty kick low and into the right side of the net for the 2-1 lead. It was his 17th goal of the season and set the Rutgers-Newark career scoring record for the sophomore, who has 43 goals in less than two seasons.
In desperation time for Kean - just over one minute remaining - Kean was awarded a free kick. Richard Zapata took it for the Cougars, and his offering was blocked down. Roncal corraled the rebound and put it back into the left side of the net with authority to knot the game at two and send it to overtime.
Kean nearly ended the game early in the extra session, when Sevag Kherlopian's header was on course towards the open goal, only to have a Raider defenseman clear it off its path at the last moment.
As the minutes ticked away in the second overtime, Kean's Patrick Foley controlled the ball and drove down the right side. He crossed the ball into the box for Rocha (pictured left), who smashed a low shot under a Rutgers defender and into the left side of the goal to touch off the wild celebration for the Cougars. It is first-year head coach Rob Irvine's first victory over a ranked team.
Goalie Nick Pavlichko made six saves, including two in overtime, to pick up the win for Kean.
The loss dropped the Scarlet Raiders to second place in the league behind Montclair State University, while the Cougars improved to 10-5-1 overall, 4-3 in the NJAC and sit alone in fourth place with two league games remaining.
The men's soccer team will return to Kean's East Campus for the final time in 2014 on Wednesday at 3 p.m. against Richard Stockton College.
