Oviedo's Late Goal Breaks Scoreless Deadlock But Men’s Soccer Suffers First Loss in Overtime to NJCU

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. — In a battle of two early season unbeatens, St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) and New Jersey City University were deadlocked for nearly the duration of regulation before Cesar Oviedo's (South Ozone Park, N.Y./Christ the King) goal in the 83rd minute opened a flurry of three scores in a span of 10 minutes, but the Bears fell 2-1 in overtime on Saturday afternoon in the SJC Long Island Tournament.

The Basics

• Final Score:  New Jersey City 2, St. Joseph's 1
• Records: New Jersey City (5-0), St. Joseph's (2-1)
• Location: Patchogue, N.Y.
• Field: Danzi Stadium

How It Happened

• It was a defensive battle for most of the game and NJCU applied the pressure throughout, but the Bears defended well and kept the game scoreless. Freshman Julian Rodriguez was stellar in net, making 14 saves after getting peppered with 30 shots to keep the Bears in the game.
• St. Joseph's played a man down from the 38th minute when Christopher Cabrera was sent off for denying a goal-scoring opportunity.
• Despite facing a 30-8 shot discrepancy for the contest, the Bears seemed poised to steal the game away from the Gothic Knights when Oviedo took a ball from Michael Ortiz on a quick restart and dribbled past the goalie and scored in the 83rd minute.
• In a wild final 10 minutes, NJCU immediately countered just 61 seconds later as the defense couldn't clear and corner and Theo Sanoh pounced on the loose ball to level the game back up at 1-all.
• Just three minutes into the first golden goal session, Sanoh struck again slotting a ball from left of goal mouth past Rodriguez, to hand the Bears their first defeat.

For the Bears

• Oviedo's goal was the first of the season. The junior led the Bears with two shots.
• Michael Ortiz recorded the 10th point of his career with his second assist of the season.
• Reigning Skyline Conference Rookie of the Week Rodriguez reaches double-digit saves for the first time in his career finishing with 14.
• Mateusz Georges and Beka Goduadze recorded the other two shots on frame for the Bears.

Post-Game Quote - Head Coach Ovid Cusu

"In the coaches opinion, we played our game of the year, and passed the ball well. In the 37th minute, the red card changed the entire game. We still scored first, but were unable to keep the lead for the entire game."

The Bear Facts

• It was the first meeting between the two schools in men's soccer.
• Beka Goduadze's goal scoring streak is halted at three games.
• St. Joseph's held opponents scoreless for a span of 198:41 across three games. Rodriguez was in net for all but three minutes of that scoreless streak.
• NJCU's goals were the first non-penalty kick goals that beat Rodriguez.  
• The Bears are now 0-2-3 in overtime games all-time. Their last golden goal defeat occurred on September 27, 2012 against Medgar Evers.

Next up for St. Joseph's

The Bears wrap up the SJC Long Island Tournament facing Plattsburg State tomorrow at 12 p.m. Live stats will be available on SJCBears.com