Rutgers Men's Soccer Hosts Divisional Rival DePaul
Oct 02 | Men's Soccer
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (October 2, 2008) - After a week of intense training, the Rutgers men's soccer team (4-3-2, 1-2-1 BIG EAST) returns to action this Saturday against Red Division foe DePaul (3-4-2, 2-2-0 BIG EAST) at 7:00 p.m. at Yurcak Field.
"DePaul is a good team," said head coach Bob Reasso. "They won our side of the division last year.
"We lost to them in overtime last year [in Chicago] and their keeper was the difference in that game. We were alone with him five times during the game and he stopped us every time. I thought he was absolutely exceptional. He's the best keeper in the conference and they have a lot of good players all over the park. They've done a very good job developing their program but we have them at home and we think we're a match for everybody at home."
The Scarlet Knights earned their first conference victory this past weekend with a thrilling come-from-behind 2-1 win over in-state rival Seton Hall (Sept. 28). The Pirates took a 1-0 lead early in the second half, before RU would respond with two goals from its dynamic sophomore Dilly Duka (Montville, N.J.). Duka, who has three two-goal performances on the season, tallied the equalizer and game-winner within two minutes of each other to lead Rutgers to victory.
The talented midfielder ranks first on the team with six goals, while six other Scarlet Knights - freshmen Sam Archer (Queens, N.Y.), Gaetano Panuccio (Mechanicsburg, Pa.), Ibrahim Kamara (North Brunswick, N.J.) and Jimmy Simon (Leavenworth, Kan.), and sophomores Josh Carroll (Cheyenne, Wyo.) and Aly Mazhar (Cairo, Egypt) - have one goal apiece on the year.
Senior Kevin McFadden (Midlothian, Va.) leads Rutgers with six assists, followed by Archer with two and Mazhar and Panuccio, who have one each have one.
DePaul split its two previous BIG EAST matchups, falling to West Virginia 2-0 before bouncing back to defeat Pittsburgh 1-0. The Blue Demons are led by Steffen Vroom who has two goals on the season, followed by Erich Reichmann with one goal. Vroom is also tied with John Kornfeld for the team lead in assists with one apiece. Starting goalkeeper Brian Visser has done his share to keep DePaul competitive with five shutouts which is tied for fourth in the conference.
Following Saturday's contest, the Scarlet Knights will embark on a five-match road trip with games at Villanova (Oct. 8), Syracuse (Oct. 11), Princeton (Oct. 15), Cincinnati (Oct. 18) and NJIT (Oct. 22).
