SCARLET RAIDER SOCCER CLASSIC
Farmingdale State 5, Staten Island 4 (OT)
NEWARK, NJ � The Farmingdale State mens's soccer team traveled to Rutgers-Newark on Friday, September 8, to play in the Scarlet Raider Soccer Classic. The Rams faced Staten Island in their first game of the tournament.
The Dolphins would open up the scoring in the 11th minute of play and would hold the 1-0 lead at halftime before Farmingdale State sophomore forward Anthony Gubitosi (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) started up a four goal rally when he scored an unassisted goal at the 59-minute mark. Three goals followed over the next 25 minutes, with a goal by sophomore forward Terrance Spencer (Bay Shore, NY/Bay Shore) and two goals by junior forward Andrew Whilby (St. Albans, NY/Wolmers Boys School), to give the Rams a 4-1 lead with 10 minutes left to play.
Staten Island's Drew Surmanek (Staten Island, NY/Msgr. Farrell) cut the deficit to 4-2 with 9 minutes to go and junior midfielder Adeyinka Olowu (Nigeria/Port Richmond) capped his hat trick for the Dolphins with back-to-back goals in the final six minutes to knot the score at 4-4. His final goal came with just 36 seconds left, sending the game into overtime.
Whilby finished off his hat trick in the seventh minute of overtime as he scored on a breakaway to give the Rams a 5-4 victory and a spot in the Tournament Finals on Saturday evening.
In the other opening match, Rutgers-Newark scored twice in the final five minutes to topple FDU-Florham, 2-1.
Trailing 1-0 with 4:37 remaining, sophomore forward Haris Krsic (Wallington, NJ/Lodi HS) put a hard shot off Devil junior goalkeeper Jared Drucker (Morristown, NJ/Randolph) which bounced off the left post and back to Krsic. With Drucker on the turf, Krsic knotted the score by going inside the far post.
Freshman walk-on Arman Zamanian (Franklin Lakes, NJ/Indian Hills), who was playing in his first game, took a breakaway pass from freshman Elliott Osafo (Franklin Lakes, NJ/Ramapo) and whistled a shot past a diving Drucker with just 2:13 left for the game-winner.
Sophomore forward Jared Cardagna (Sayreville, NJ/Sayreville) took a through pass from sophomore midfielder Matt Martone (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) about 40 yards out on the right side, raced past a Raider defender and beat sophomore goalie Matthew Johnson (Montclair, NJ/Montclair) to the near post to give FDU (1-2) the lead in the 62nd minute.
Drucker chalked up seven saves while Johnson finished with three first-half stops. Rutgers-Newark (1-2) forged a 14-8 edge in shots.
CSI and FDU-Florham play the men's consolation match at noon before Rutgers-Newark and Farmingdale clash in the 5 o'clock title game.