Box Score
NEWARK, NJ—Iona scored two first-half goals, one on a deflection and another on a penalty kick and that was enough for the visiting Gaels in their 2-0 men's soccer win over NJIT Saturday night on Lubetkin Field.
Iona, now 6-2, broke the ice at 17:55, when Aly Lo, who had two game-winning goals for the Gaels last week, scored what would become the game-winner against NJIT.
Lo, a senior midfielder, scored his fourth goal of the season to key the fifth straight victory for the Gaels, who are 6-2.
His low shot from about 22 yards out was deflected off of an NJIT defender, with the ball changing direction just enough to put Highlander goalkeeper Josh Osit in an awkward position to try for the save.
Osit, reacting to the shot, committed to where he expected the ball to go, and he was already on the ground when it arrived and rolled up and over his prone body to squirt over the goal line.
Iona got its second goal on a penalty kick by Ben Williams at 40:26. The shot was awarded when Mario Rios was tripped in the penalty area by a second NJIT defender who was arriving from behind to double-team Rios.
The penalty kick came after a period of 10 minutes or so when NJIT applied steady pressure and kept the ball in the Iona half of the field almost continuously.
For NJIT coach Pedro Lopes, it was a case of two evenly-matched teams, but one found a way to score its fifth straight win and the other dropped to 1-6-1, despite holding its own on the field.
“We did a lot of work and we created some dangerous situations, especially in the first half,” said Lopes. “But you've got to put one away. (Iona) got the breaks and took advantage of them to get their goals. We had our chances and didn't score.”
NJIT's best chance of the first half came minutes before Iona's Lo actually scored the first goal. Erik Magnusson got off a quality shot from 20 yards, but Iona's Nils Binstock, who would register his third straight 2-0 win and his fourth shutout overall, made the saves.
The best second-half scoring opportunity for the Highlanders came midway through the period when Gustav Warfving worked for a shot from 20 yards out, but Binstock got a piece of it and deflected it over the roof of the goal.
Binstock finished with two saves, while his NJIT counterpart, Osit, also made two saves. The total shots favored the Highlanders, 13-10.
NJIT, which plays its first nine contests of the 2008 season against teams from either the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference or the Northeast Conference, played its fifth, and final, 2008 game against a MAAC team when it faced Iona. The Highlanders finished 1-3-1 against their five MAAC foes.
Next up for the Highlanders is a game Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 in Teaneck, NJ, at Fairleigh Dickinson of the Northeast Conference.
