BIG TEN TOURNAMENT TIME
The Rutgers men's soccer team heads into the Big Ten Tournament looking to play upset as they open up conference tournament action with Northwestern in the play-in game on Saturday at noon in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The winner of Saturday's play-in between the ninth-seeded Scarlet Knights and eighth-seeded Wildcats will advance to the Big Ten quarterfinals and meet top-seeded Michigan on Sunday at 1 p.m..

RU closed out the regular season playing four of its final five games at home earning a 2-1 win over NJIT and a 4-1 victory over Lafayette.

The Scarlet Knights are led by redshirt senior midfielder Erik Sa and senior forward Ryan Peterson, who both have recorded a trio of goals along with an assist. Redshirt junior midfielder Miles Hackett follows on the stat sheet with two goals, including the game-winner against in-state rival Princeton, and an assist. Junior Thomas Dovell has also captured two goals on the season, collecting the game-winner against Lafayette.

In goal, junior Rafael Pereira has started all 17 contests with shutouts against UMKC and Princeton. He has posted 91 stops on the season.



ABOUT NORTHWESTERN
The Wildcats enter the Big Ten Tournament sporting a 6-11-0 overall record and finished eighth overall in the league with a 1-7-0 conference record.

Since it's 3-0 win over Rutgers on Oct. 15, Northwestern has swung back and forth between the win and loss columns dropping a 2-0 decision to Michigan State and falling 2-1 in the regular season finale at Penn State, while needing double overtime to pick up a win over Loyola (Md.), 2-1, in the home finale.

Freshman midfielder Tommy Katsiyiannis leads the Wildcats with nine points (4G, 1A), while junior midfielder Camden Buescher (2G, 4A), sophomore forward Mac Mazzola (3G, 2A) and sophomore midfielder Sean Lynch (3G, 2A) follow on the stat sheet with eight points a piece.

In goal, junior Robbie White has started the last eight-straight games accumulating 48 saves with two shutouts. He is holding down a 1.62 goals against average and .787 save percentage.

LAST TIME VS. NORTHWESTERN
Northwestern scored a trio of early goals as the Rutgers men's soccer team fell, 3-0, to the Wildcats on a blustery afternoon at Martin Stadium on Oct. 15.

Northwestern's Tommy Katsiyiannis netted the Wildcats' first two goals, scoring the game-winner in the fifth minute off a rebound on a corner kick. He logged his second goal in the 20th minute off his own rebound, while teammate Mac Mazzola rounded out scoring in the 25th minute off a takeaway in the backfield.

Rutgers' Rafael Pereira made six saves in the loss while Wildcat netminder Robbie White stopped six of the Scarlet Knights' 13 shots.

Rutgers and Northwestern both registered 13 shots, while the Scarlet Knights held a 5-4 edge in corner opportunities. Freshman Vincent Borden led RU with four attempts. Senior Niel Guzman logged three shots, including an attempt midway through the second half from distance resulting in White leaping to prevent the ball from sneaking in underneath the crossbar.

ABOUT MICHIGAN
With a win, Rutgers will advance to the tournament quarterfinals to meet Big Ten regular season champion, Michigan. The top-seeded Wolverines captured its first Big Ten regular season title on Sunday afternoon with a 2-1 victory at then No. 9 Maryland.

The Wolverines enter the tournament with an 11-4-2 overall mark, having compiled a 6-1-1 Big Ten record, and riding a four-game win streak.

Sophomore forward Jack Hallahan leads Michigan with 17 points (5G, &A) followed by freshman forward Mohammed Zakyi's 16 points (6G, 4A). Zakyi ranks third in the league in goals per game (0.46). 

Junior forward Francis Atuahene, who leads the Big Ten in shots per game (4.25) and is second in game-winners (4) , has also contributed five goals.

Freshman goalkeeper Henry Mashburn has started the last four contests in goal for the Wolverines holding down a 0.88 goals against average and .818 save percentage with shutouts against Detroit and Ohio State.

LAST TIME VS. MICHIGAN
The Rutgers men's soccer team battled back from an early deficit against Michigan and trailed by a goal at the intermission. The Wolverines, however, added an insurance goal early in the second half enroute to the 3-1 win over the Scarlet Knights at U-M Stadium back on Oct. 6.

Michigan mustered a 2-0 edge 20 minutes into the contest off a goals by Ivo Cerda and Francis Atuahene.

The Scarlet Knights, though would strike in the 38th minute and trail 2-1 at the half.

Redshirt senior midfielder Erik Sa took a restart from 35-yards out looking to bend the ball into the back left side of the Wolverine goal. Senior forward Ryan Peterson, however, dove to head the ball across the goal and into the right side for his second goal of the season.

The Wolverines went on to add an insurance goal by Atuahene in the 57th minute while keeping Rutgers at bay.

In goal, junior goalkeeper Rafael Pereira made five saves. His counterpart Andrew Verdi made three stops, including potential equalizers by Sa off a restart late in the first half and an early attempt by Vincent Borden in the second half.

B1G CHALLENGE
Four Big Ten teams are currently listed in the United Soccer Coaches Poll. Entering the postseason, Indiana remains one of two unbeaten Division I teams at No. 2, followed by Michigan State at No. 8, Michigan at No. 12 and Maryland at No. 24.

OLD AND NEW
In the win of Lafayette on Oct. 18,  a trio of freshmen were involved in the scoring effort. Bryce Washington posted his first Scarlet Knight goal, Kyle Galloway registered a pair of assists and Vincent Borden captured his first collegiate helper. 

Meanwhile, veterans redshirt senior  Erik Sa and junior Thomas Dovell also found the back of the Leopard goal in helping Rutgers return to the win column. 

For Dovell, it was his second career game-winner. He also had the game-winner in last year's regular season finale victory at Bradley.

ON THE STOP
Junior Rafael Pereira leads Big Ten and is second in the NCAA in total saves (91) and leads the Big Ten and is eighth nationally in saves per game (5.35).

Most recently, the Lisbon, Portugal native a season-high with nine stops against Columbia in the regular season finale on Oct. 25. The Lions had ranked as high as No. 14 nationally.

Previous, Pereira set season-highs with back-to-back seven save games with No. 2 Indiana (Sept. 22) and in-state rival Princeton (Sept. 26). 

Pereira picked up his first Scarlet Knight shutout during week two in RU's 0-0 draw at UMKC on Sept. 3 and added another in the Sept. 26 1-0 victory at Princeton.

Among his five saves against the Roos was stopping a penalty kick by reigning WAC Player of the Week, Eric McWoods during the first overtime.

Pereira's second shutout came at Princeton on Sept. 26, where he tied his season-high with seven stops. Pereira made two critical late saves coming off the line to stop Princeton's Gaby Paniagua from six-yards out and denying a Bobby Hickson equalizer as a long throw-in bounced around the box. 

Prior to arriving "On The Banks," Pereira was a two-time NJCAA All-American at Marshalltown Community College, where he racked up 20 shutouts in his two-year career.

DENYING THE NATION'S LEADING SCORER
In the Oct. 11 win over NJIT, the Scarlet Knights kept Mamadou Guirassy, the nation's leading scorer, away from the net, RU limited the senior Highlander forward to three shots, two of which were saved by Scarlet Knight netminder Rafael Pereira. Guirassy entered the game having tallied 26 points and 12 goals and was averaging 2.00 points and 4.85 shots per game.

SHUTOUT BY THE SHUTOUT LEADERS
The Scarlet Knights dropped a 1-0 decision to Ohio State back on Sept. 17 with the Buckeyes getting the game's lone score on a penalty kick in the 78th minute. Ohio State entered the game ranked first in the country in shutout percentage.

Miles Hackett led Rutgers with four shots, including a diving header late in the second half off a cross from Ryan Peterson at the center of net that was blocked to keep the Scarlet Knights off the scoreboard.

The Rutgers defense came away with some big stops in the 66th minute. Rafael Pereira made a save with the Hunter Robinson shot at point blank range, while Brian Hawkins swooped in for a goal line save on Robinson's rebound.

STOPPING THE SPARTAN STREAK
Although the Scarlet Knights fell 2-1 to then-No. 13 Michigan State in their home and Big Ten  opener on Sept. 9, RU was able to put a halt on the Spartans' season-opening shutout streak.

Entering the tournament, Rutgers is one of only five teams that have managed to find the back of the Spartan net.

After playing to a 0-0 stalemate at the half, Michigan State took a 2-0 lead 10 minutes into the second half. The Scarlet Knights were relentless in trying to tie the game, ending the evening outshooting the Spartans, 19-6.  

Senior Ryan Peterson made it a one-goal game with a penalty kick in the 82nd minute ending MSU's streak of 441 scoreless minutes. Michigan State had opened up the year with four-straight clean sheets for the first time since 1968.

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