No. 10 Pirates Open 2021 Season, Host Temple on Thursday

Thursday, August 26

South Orange, N.J.

6:56 PM

Seton Hall University

Temple

No. 10 Pirates Open 2021 Season, Host Temple on Thursday

8/25/2021 2:33:00 PM | Men's Soccer

GAME NOTES (PDF)GAME PROGRAM (PDF)

South Orange, N.J. – After capturing their first BIG EAST Title since 1991 and advancing to the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals for the second time program history, the No. 10-ranked Pirates will open up the 2021 season at home against Temple on Thursday. The match will be streamed live on FloSports with kickoff set for 6:56 p.m., at Owen T. Carroll Field.

LAST TIME OUT
The Pirates wrapped up the 2020 season with a 10-2-4 mark culminating in a BIG EAST title and NCAA Tournament berth. Under the guidance of Head Coach Andreas Lindberg, the Pirates captured their first BIG EAST Tournament Championship since 1991 with a 2-1 win over then-second ranked Georgetown at Shaw Field. The team also made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005 as the number six overall seed. The Pirates would go on to win two games in the tournament to advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals for only the second time in program history and first since 1988.

Five Pirates were named to All-BIG EAST Teams following the 2020 campaign. CJ Tibbling (Jarna, Sweden) and Luca Dahn (Kahl, Germany) were awarded First Team honors, goalkeeper Andreas Nota (Rome, Italy) earned a spot on the Second Team and JP Marin (Briarwood, N.Y.) and Johannes Pex (Stephansposching, Germany) shared Third Team selections. Dahn and Tibbling were also United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-Americans, the first Pirates to do so since Sacha Kljestan was named to the All-America Third Team in 2005.

SCOUTING – Temple (0-0-0, 0-0-0)

The Owls finished the 2020 season with a 5-4-2 record for the program's first winning season since 2017.
Despite a slow start to the season, Temple would go on to only drop one of their final seven matches and closed the year on a four-game unbeaten streak with wins over Tulsa, Memphis and SMU.
Offensively the Owls are led by the trio of Jalen Campbell, Amir Cohen and Mike Eijgendaal, who each found the back of the net four times with two assists apiece.
Eoin Gawronski played the majority of minutes between the pipes for Temple coming away with a 4-1-2 record and 31 saves.
The Pirates lead the all-time series 3-1, winning each of the prior three matchups with the Eagles. Most recently, The Hall took down Temple 5-1, also at home, on Sept. 24, 1988. The Pirates would go on to win their third consecutive BIG EAST Title in 1988 before losing to Indiana in the NCAA Quarterfinals.

NEWS & NOTES

The Pirates were picked second in the BIG EAST Conference Preseason Coaches Poll as the reigning BIG EAST champions were awarded 93 points including three first place votes. Georgetown took the top spot in the poll edging the Pirates by just five points while Creighton, the third team picked, was awarded 74 points.
CJ Tibbling was selected as the conference's Preseason Co-Offensive Player of the Year and was a unanimous selection for the Preseason All-BIG EAST squad. Tibbling is coming off a 2020 Second Team All-America selection as well as First Team All-BIG EAST honors. On the offensive end, Tibbling led the Pirates with seven goals and 17 points on the season to go along with three assists. With his seven tallies, Tibbling ranked second in the BIG EAST and 20th in the country in goals scored.
Luca Dahn was honored as the BIG EAST's Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and earned a spot Preseason All-BIG EAST team. Dahn was awarded a 2020 Second Team All-America selection as well as First Team All-BIG EAST honors. In his first year in a Seton Hall uniform, Dahn logged over 1500 minutes for The Hall and was on the pitch for all but nine minutes throughout the campaign. Despite lining up as a center back, Dahn also scored twice for The Hall while registering 12 shots on net, second best on the team.
The Pirates have found success in season-openers under fourth-year Head Coach Andreas Lindberg. Seton Hall is 2-0-1 in its past three yearly debuts outscoring opponents 11-4 in the process.
After dropping the 2019 season finale to Villanova on Nov. 6, the Pirates have yet to suffer a loss at home since. The Hall put together a 6-0-1 campaign at Owen T. Carroll Field in 2020 with the lone draw against then-No. 3 Georgetown, 1-1. The Pirates have been unbeaten at home for 660 days.
Junior James Boote (Southampton, England) was terrific on set pieces for Pirates last season. Boote had eight assists in the final 10 games for The Hall and nine total helpers on the season. That total led the BIG EAST was good for fourth in the nation.
Goalkeeper Andreas Nota was fantastic for the Pirates between the pipes last season. Nota had a hand in all six Pirate shutouts with four of them coming in BIG EAST play. Nota's Goals Allowed Average finished at 0.85 which was good enough for the second-best single season GAA in program history. Nota's heroic penalty kick performance in the NCAA Tournament Round of 16 against Virginia Tech saw the Italy-native stop two Hokie PKs before burying the game-winner himself.
The Pirates added four newcomers, both young and old, for the 2021 season. Joining the Blue & White this season are freshmen Ralph Pascarella (Bellmore, N.Y.) and Justin Gemellaro (Manalapan, N.J.). Also new to South Orange are veteran, graduate students Jordan Jowers (Middlesbrough, England) and Mattia Cella (Rapallo, Italy). Jowers comes to Seton Hall after four years at Saint Peter's where he was a two-time United Soccer Coaches All-East region selection as well as a three-time All-MAAC First Team honoree with 27 career tallies. Cella comes from Caldwell University where in 2018 he registered five points with two goals and an assist in the midfield.

WATCH
New for 2021-22, all PSN and BEDN events that are produced on campus will be distributed on FloSports, one of the leading streaming services in the world. Special Seton Hall pricing is available only through this link for fans who want to subscribe to watch Seton Hall events, home and away, as well as all other live events on the FloSports platform. Fans with a .edu school address can purchase a subscription for $6.99 per month, and all other fans can purchase a subscription for $12.50 per month. The non-Seton Hall pricing on FloSports is normally