The struggling Seton Hall men’s soccer team knocked off the NJIT Highlanders, 4-1, on Tuesday night in Newark. The team hopes the win serves as a catalyst for Andreas Lindberg’s side. With the victory, the Pirates improve to 2-4-0 on the season.
The Pirates, who entered Tuesday’s game having failed to score from open play since their first game and dropped their Big East opener 1-0 against Providence last Friday, broke the drought in the 21st minute when midfielder Camil Koreichi scored his first goal The French midfielder’s first attempt made its way back to him, and he buried it.
The Highlanders equalized 10 minutes later when Rene White latched onto a defense-splitting pass and slotted home for his seventh goal of the season. Seton Hall would strike again before halftime. Sean MacLeod’s 40th-minute free kick, his maiden goal for the Pirates, gave the visitors a 2-1 lead entering the locker room.
Following a tight start to the second half in which the Highlanders drew a number of tough saves out of goalkeeper Andreas Nota, Seton Hall capitalized on a turnover from the home side to break the game open with under 20 minutes to go. Stephen Elias’ cross from the right found Koreichi, who bagged his second of the game for the Pirates.
Andrea Borg added Seton Hall’s fourth goal before the end of the night to ice the result for the visitors by beating his opposition and capping off a solo run with a tidy finish.
The Pirates were the more clinical side, but the final shot total was only 19-16 in favor of the visitors, and each team put eight shots on target. Nota made seven saves, several of which came while Seton Hall nursed a narrow 2-1 lead. Allowing NJIT to equalize would have drastically altered the complexion of the match, but the Pirates were able to hold firm and instead put the game away.
Kyle Beck can be found at kyle.beck1@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @notkylebeck.
