Starting XI: Men’s Soccer vs. Mount St. Mary's

Sep 05 | Men's Soccer

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The 11 things to know before the Scarlet Knights face the Mountaineers on Monday night at Yurcak Field

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's soccer (2-0-1) looks to remain unbeaten to start the 2021 season when Mount St. Mary's (1-1-0) comes to Yurcak Field on Monday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. on Big Ten+.

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PREVIOUSLY ON ...

Rutgers defeated Princeton on the road Friday night, 1-0, in the Tigers' first official match in 658 days.
A Pablo Avila through ball set up Cole Sotack to whip a hard cross off a Princeton defender, which ricocheted into the back of the net for an own goal and the only score of the contest in the 56th minute.
RU goalkeeper Oren Asher made seven saves in his 10th career shutout, including two in the final three minutes of the match.

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SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS: The Mount started the season 1-1 with a 2-1 win over St. Peter's and a 3-0 setback to Lafayette last Friday night. Coming off a 1-5-2 shortened campaign mostly in the Northeast Conference in the Spring, the Mountaineers return both of their All-NEC selections. Second Teamer Gavin Watt returns after effective back line play and four points on set piece goals. Rookie selection Alek Wroblewski tied for the team lead in goals with three and returns for his sophomore season.

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HISTORY VS. MOUNT ST. MARY'S: Rutgers won the only matchup in 2018 in Maryland, 2-0, on goals by Miles Franklin and Kyle Galloway (a 2020 RU graduate).

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LALAS LAND: Rutgers entered rare territory in a 1-0 shutout at Princeton on Friday evening at a packed Sherrerd Field. Goalkeeper Oren Asher's seven saves led to the Scarlet Knight's third consecutive clean sheet to start the season, the first time that's happened "On the Banks" since Alexi Lalas and the NCAA Championship runner-up squad did it in 1990. That season, RU started the year with four shutout wins over St. Bonaventure, Old Dominion, William & Mary, and St. Joseph's.

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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 and one of four goalkeepers in the nation with three shutouts in 2021. He is one of three goalkeepers across NCAA Division I to play 275 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 the only team in the Big Ten to not concede a goal through three match days.

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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 all three 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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