BOX SCORE
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. The Seton Hall men’s soccer team used a dominant offensive performance to blow past Rutgers on Sunday, 4-1. Junior forward Eliseo Giusfredi (Paterson, N.J.) had a hand in all four Pirate scores, totaling one goal and three assists in the match.
Rutgers (3-5-1, 2-2-0) stayed with the Pirates (4-6-0, 1-3-0) early on and managed the game’s first score. In the 27th minute, Adam Lloyd headed in a direct free kick from Chris Moore to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Giusfredi answered soon thereafter, taking a perfect feed from junior Christian Vercollone (Pembroke, Mass.) on the left and beating Rutgers keeper Matt Van Oekel with a shot to the right side of the net for his sixth goal of the season.. The teams headed into halftime knotted at one.
SHU began to assert its will on offense in the second half. In the 59th minute, Giusfredi slid a pass down the left side to freshman Andrew Welker (Mechanisburg, Pa.), who beat Van Oekel for his fourth goal of the year and a 2-1 lead.
In the 75th minute, freshman Dritan Sela (Wayne, N.J.) beat a Rutgers defender to a pass from Giusfredi in front of the net and fired into the left side of the net to make it 3-1. Just over five minutes later, Sela converted another pass from Giusfredi, this time with a lob over Van Oekel’s head for his third tally of the year.
The Pirates enjoyed a stunning 23-6 edge in shots, including a 15-1 spread in the second half. SHU also held a sizable advantage in corner kicks at 11-4.
Sophomore Paul McHenry (Ephrata, Pa.) made three saves in net to pick up his fourth win of the season. Van Oekel stopped eight shots for the Scarlet Knights.
Giusfredi and Welker had five shots for Seton Hall, while freshman Brayan Martinez (West Orange, N.J.) added four.
The Pirates will host Marquette in their next match on Oct. 6 at 1:00 p.m.
