2007 Season Review
Dec 06 | Men's Soccer
The 2007 Rutgers men's soccer season, despite its ups and downs, was a year of several bright spots. The team played a highly-competitive schedule which featured three nationally-ranked foes and seven squads that advanced to the first round of the 2007 NCAA Soccer Championship. RU finished the season 7-11-1, boasting a number of conference victories and thrilling moments. However, four overtime losses and some late season defeats cost the team dearly.
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Senior tri-captain Kevin O'Connor played in all 19 games, scoring one goal and two assists |
Reasso's squad was also hampered by a number of injuries to key players, including starting goalkeeper Matt VanOekel and veterans Joey Sorrentino and Ryan Breznitsky.
"Not having Matt at 100 percent really hurt us," said Reasso. "At the start of preseason, he was only five months from anterior cruciate surgery. He started slowly but got better as the season went on. Having to redshirt Joey, a U-17 national team forward, was also a big blow. It hurt us that we didn't have him and we also had to medically redshirt a starter in the midfield in Ryan."
"Having said that, we had enough talent and we should have done better," Reasso added.
Several young players stepped up and established themselves throughout the year, giving Scarlet Knight soccer fans a reason to be optimistic and excited about the future.
After dropping its first two contests and earning a tie in the third game, Rutgers notched its first win of the year with a 3-0 victory over the University of Delaware. Senior Adam Sternberger, junior Tim McRae, and senior Kyle Grato each netted a goal in the Scarlet Knights' win.
But Rutgers had difficulty hanging onto the momentum achieved in the victory, and would drop a 2-1 overtime contest at Lehigh three days later. After a 2-0 home loss to then-third ranked Notre Dame in front of 6,300 fans and a national television audience on the Fox Soccer Channel, the Scarlet Knights embarked on a successful midseason stretch.
First, the Scarlet Knights defeated the Marquette Golden Eagles 1-0 at Yurcak. In the contest, freshman Dilly Duka scored his first collegiate goal to lead the squad to victory. RU rode the win over Marquette to the nation's capital and reeled off their second consecutive victory, moving them to within a win of .500 overall, and 2-1 in the BIG EAST. This time, senior Chris Moore, who led the team with five assists, found Duka streaking toward the goal and fed him a superb pass, which he put past Georgetown goalie Matthew Brutto for the game-winning goal.
Rutgers was unable to extend the winning streak to three, as they dropped a 4-1 decision at instate rival Seton Hall. Despite the lopsided score, the Scarlet Knights kept the contest close in the early going, and remained tied with the Pirates at 1-1 entering halftime, however letting up three goals in 21 minutes eventually cost the team the game.
Again demonstrating their will to beat even the stiffest competition, Rutgers nearly upset 23rd-ranked Villanova after out-playing and out-shooting them throughout the match. RU took a 1-0 lead in the 86th minute, but the Wildcats responded with two straight goals ' one in the closing moments of regulation, and another in overtime ' to steal the win.
Rutgers' loss to Villanova was one of four overtime losses during the season. The Scarlet Knights had a tough time pulling out those close contests that went down to the wire.
"A big reason for the lack of success this year was we lost four overtime games," said Reasso. "If you win those games, you have a good season and if you don't win, it's not a good season. Overall, we just didn't defend well and we didn't score goals at critical times."
Once again, though, the Scarlet Knights showed the ability to rise above adversity, defeating BIG EAST rival Syracuse to climb to a 3-3 record in the conference. Sternberger scored his third goal of the season to put Rutgers up early and assisted sophomore Tomislav Barisic on his first collegiate goal to claim the 2-1 victory.
Three days later, coach Bob Reasso's squad bested NJIT, a team led by former Scarlet Knight All-American Pedro Lopes, in a match where RU pulled out of a 1-0 hole to once again move within a win of an even record. Sophomore Tino Waked and senior Kevin O'Connor scored in the come-back victory.
After a 1-0 overtime defeat on the road to eventual BIG EAST Red Division winner DePaul, the Scarlet Knights completed a 2-0 homestand against the Ivy League's University of Pennsylvania and nationally-ranked BIG EAST foe South Florida.
In the first of the two games, Barisic shined, collecting both goals in the 2-0 shutout of the Quakers. He continued his tear against No. 18 South Florida, once again scoring a pair of goals and leading the way for the 3-1 Rutgers win.
Barisic's role in the 2-0 stretch not only helped the Scarlet Knights to climb to a 7-7-1 record, but also gained him some individual recognition, as he earned National Player of the Week honors by collegesoccernews.com. He also received the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week award, and was named to Soccer America's Men's Team of the Week in a breakout year.
But the South Florida victory would be Rutgers' last win of the year, as it dropped its final four contests to conference opponents St. John's, Louisville, and Cincinnati, and No. 6 Brown.
"The Brown and Cincinnati games were particularly disappointing because we had the better of the play in both of those games," said Reasso.
Despite missing out on the BIG EAST tournament by just a game, the Scarlet Knights have high hopes going into the 2008 season. Some points of focus heading into next year will be the new co-captains, Breznitsky and goalkeeper Amir Haghshenas. Rutgers hopes the leadership of the two current redshirt juniors will lead to improvement for the young team.
The Scarlet Knights will also look for its solid corps of young players to help contribute to a successful 2008 campaign. The 2007 freshman class came into the season as the 27th-ranked recruiting class in the nation according to collegesoccernews.com and their impact was seen throughout the year. The 13-member class was well represented on the field this past season as 10 Scarlet Knights appeared in at least one game and six played 10 games or more.
The newcomers were led by Duka, who finished the year with two goals and four assists. Also contributing offensively, were Aly Mazhar and Tino Waked who each posted one goal on the year; while Stafford Chipungu added an assists. Defensively, the Scarlet Knights received a boost from freshmen Paulie Calafiore, Chris Edwards and Mike Volk. Calafiore and Volk earned valuable experience in the back, while Edwards saw time in all 19 games.
"I'm very optimistic about next season but we still have to get on the field and win games," Reasso explained. "We'll still be a young team, but we have a great recruiting class coming in and we had a lot of young guys get some great experience on the field this season."
With a seemingly bright future ahead, the Rutgers men's soccer program has succeeded in many ways in 2007. Not only have the seniors done their part in ensuring a stable foundation for the players who will follow them, but the underclassmen have shown the ability to receive the torch they have been passed, and will surely bring many more victories home to New Jersey.
