CAMDEN, N.J. – The Haverford College men's soccer team racked up its sixth straight victory on Wednesday night with a 3-0 win against Rutgers-Camden, The Fords' (8-3) victory came against a team receiving votes in the latest NSCAA Poll and is their second straight and third overall against a team recognized in the national poll during the winning streak.
Wednesday's victory also broke a 14-match unbeaten streak at home for Rutgers-Camden. The Raptors (8-3-1) had gone 13-0-1 since the Fords handed them a 7-4 defeat during last year's meeting. Dating back to the 2010 season, the Raptors are 57-4-3 during home matches. Two of those four losses can now be claimed by the Fords.
The Fords jumped out early with a goal in the 13th minute of play from Sam Yarosh. Maclyn Willigan and Russell Nicholson added insurance tallies in the second half for the convincing win. In goal, Sam Miller stopped all five shots that he faced for the victory before Chris Gibson came on for the closing minutes.
Haverford held the upper hand in terms of chances during the early portion of play. Despite an early Raptors' save and another shot being blocked down, the Fords' attack paid off with just 13:09 gone by in the contest. Yarosh collected a pass from Michael Carr and finished to the upper left hand corner to put his team up 1-0. With the goal, Yarosh added to his conference-leading total and now has 10 on the season. Carr's helper was his fourth of the season. The freshman has an assist in two straight matches and three of four overall.
The Raptors finished the first half with nine shots; however, Miller recorded four of his five saves for the night during the opening 45 minutes to keep his team ahead. Over the final 45 minutes, the visiting Fords owned a 10-4 advantage in shots.
The second half offensive advantage began to pay dividends on the scoreboard just over five minutes in. With back-to-back corner kick opportunities, Haverford made the most of its second chance as Will Corkery's ball found the head of Willigan on the left post for a 2-0 lead. Willigan's goal was his second of the season.
Haverford racked up an astounding 12 corner kick tries during the second half of play to help the offensive pressure. It was again a corner opportunity that led to Haverford's goal in the 65th minute of play. This time, Corkery found Nicholson on the far right post for the header. Nicholson's goal was his first of the season and fourth of the sophomore's career. After his two most recent assists, Corkery now has nine helpers on the season, already surpassing his total which led the Centennial Conference a season ago.
Nine different players recorded a shot for Haverford against Rutgers-Camden. Yarosh led the team with four shots, while Nicholson and Corkery each had multiple attempts. Six other players, including Willigan, tallied a single shot for the night.
Men's soccer will return home this Saturday for the first of four straight home dates in a span of eight days. Up first will be a conference showdown with Dickinson. This weekend's Centennial Conference contest will get underway at 2 p.m.