PRINCETON, N.J. – Rutgers men's soccer (1-0-1) and Princeton (0-0-0) renew a 79-year rivalry on Friday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. at Sherrerd Field. It is the first road test of 2021 for the Scarlet Knights, and the first official match for Princeton since November 16, 2019 - a span of 658 days.

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PREVIOUSLY ON ... 

• One hundred and ten minutes could not separate Rutgers men's soccer and Temple in a scoreless draw on Monday evening at Yurcak Field.
• Rutgers played with 10 men for the final 65 minutes of the 110-minute affair following a straight red card seconds before halftime. The match was also paused in the 12^th minute for lightning in the area – the delay lasted 45 minutes.
• Temple goalkeeper Eoin Gawronsky stopped a PK in the first overtime period, his second extra time penalty save in as many games to start the season for the 0-0-2 Owls.

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BIG TEN DEFENSIVE PLAYER (TEAM) OF THE WEEK: Junior goalkeeper Oren Asher is the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week after two shutouts to start the season. He is one of five goalkeepers across NCAA Division I to play 200 or more minutes in net without allowing a goal.

"I think clean sheets are a team effort," Asher said. "So I don't really take the whole credit for it. For me, it's all about the team."

Asher and the defense contributed to the four Rutgers wins last Spring, all via the clean sheet. The goalkeeper now has nine shutouts through two-plus seasons. Asher has been the first to credit the boys in front of him on the shared shutout statistics, including team captain Thomas DeVizio, Vincent Borden, Chris Tiao, Hugo Le Guennec, and Cole Sotack, who all combined for the lion's share of the minutes on defense last season. Rutgers is one of 12 teams across the country to not concede a goal through two contests this Fall.

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SCOUTING THE TIGERS: Despite the extended downtime due to the Ivy League canceling the entire 2020-21 season, Princeton will have a veteran presence in the lineup. Eighteen players return from the Tigers' 2018 Ivy League championship team. Four players with All-Ivy accolades to their credit return, including 2018 Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year Kevin O'Toole as well as 2019 All-Ivy selections Walker Gillespie, Alex Charles and Moulay Hamza Kanzi Belghiti. Joining the returning players will be a group of 14 newcomers -- six sophomores and eight freshmen set to make their Princeton debuts.

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HISTORY VS. PRINCETON: The Scarlet Knights and Tigers will meet for the 60th time since the in-state rivalry began in 1942. The series picks up for the first time since 2017, when RU scored a 1-0 victory at Sherrerd Field - snapping a two-game skid against the Tigers. Princeton holds a 29-21-9 edge in the head-to-head series, including an 18-8-5 advantage when the match takes place in Princeton.

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PLAYERS TO WATCH: The Big Ten has announced Rutgers men's soccer student-athletes Oren Asher, Pablo Avila, and Ritchie Barry as 2021 Players to Watch as part of the conference's preseason honors.
 
Asher, a junior goalkeeper from Herzliya, Israel, led four shutout victories during the Spring 2021 season for the Scarlet Knights, a mark that was tied for the second spot in the shutout category in the Big Ten. Asher earned two Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week awards last Spring, the first Rutgers player to repeat the honor in the same season since joining the conference in 2014.
 
Avila led the Scarlet Knights in scoring in 2019 and is now a two-time captain of the Rutgers squad heading into the Fall of 2021. Avila has consistently increased his presence as a team leader. Despite missing three matches of an already-shortened Spring 2021 campaign, Avila made his mark on and off the pitch as Rutgers tied its best Big Ten mark with four victories. The midfielder from Terrassa, Spain was on the field for all four of Rutgers' shutout victories last season.
 
Barry made a quick impact on his new squad in the Spring of 2021 after transferring from St. Joseph's. The senior striker from Cardiff, Wales led the Scarlet Knights with four goals, which ranked third in the Big Ten. Two of his four goals, which gave him 17 during his collegiate career, went down as game-winners for Rutgers during a season that ended in its best Big Ten finish (fifth) since 2015.

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RU EXPERIENCED?: The vast majority of the group that found so much success last Spring is back for the Fall. The Scarlet Knights welcome back 10 returning starters. In all, 19 players who saw action last Spring return for the Fall, making up 24 of the 27 points scored and 91 percent of the minutes played throughout the roster. Rutgers returns some hardware with graduate student striker Ritchie Barry staying on for his fifth year after being named All-Big Ten Second Team in the Spring.

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SPRING BACK: Head coach Jim McElderry guided Rutgers not only through a nontraditional pandemic season, but also posted four Big Ten wins and finished in fifth place in the conference along the way - both tying program highs since joining the league in 2014. The conference-only campaign finished 4-4-1 and included historic wins for RU: a first-ever victory in seven tries against Michigan State and the program's first triumph over Maryland since 1995. The season ended with a touch of heartbreak as Maryland outlasted the Scarlet Knights, 5-4, in a penalty shootout at the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals following a 1-1 draw after 110 minutes.

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NEW KIDS "ON THE BANKS": McElderry recruited seven freshmen and three transfers to make up 10 newcomers on the 2021 Fall roster. Xavi Olmos is a grad transfer from Florida International, while Jason Bouregy (American) and Jace Orvos (Penn State) transfer in as sophomores. The seven first-years include five New Jersey natives - Matthew Acosta, Aurie Briscoe, Bryan Keating, Nico Rosamilia, and Joey Zalinsky - along with Adam Davies from Pennsylvania and Aidan Flynn from the Portland Timbers Academy.

Freshmen Acosta, Rosamilia, and Zalinsky all made starts in both games early this season, and Rosamilia picked up his first collegiate point with an assist on the game-winning goal against Delaware on Aug. 26.

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OUT OF CONFERENCE IS IN: The season opener against Delaware was Rutgers' first non-conference match in 667 days. Last time RU had a non-conference slate, the Scarlet Knights went 6-1-2 out of conference for its fifth-best non-league winning percentage in school history.

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THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY: The Rutgers men's soccer roster features 13 New Jersey natives, including five of this year's freshman corps. Five Scarlet Knights have come to the program from the MLS developmental program New York Red Bulls Academy, which trains and plays its home games in the Garden State.
 
 
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