Haverford College and Rutgers-Camden play to scoreless draw

After opening their season with a 4-0 win at home over St. John Fisher, the Rutgers-Camden attack looked poised to score in their visit to Haverford College but were unable to find the back of the net despite earning 13 corners and registering 11 shots in a scoreless draw at Walton Field on Saturday afternoon.

Haverford, which is celebrating 120 years as a program this year, opened their season at home on Friday with a 2-2 draw against Arcadia thanks to second half rally that canceled out two goals by the visitors in the first half. Goalkeeper Grayson Benson and the Fords back line did well to prevent the Scarlet Raptors attack from repeating the feat.

The goalkeeper who transferred to Haverford from Oberlin College, made just one save on the day – denying rookie Declan Capps a chance just before halftime – but was active throughout the match commanding his box and distributing long searching balls to put the the Rutgers-Camden defense under pressure.

“It’s nice to be a part of a team that really focus on defending like last year,” Benson said. “The back line today certainly helped me out a lot with relieving a lot of pressure and keeping the ball as far away from it as they could.”

The Fords are coming off a disappointing two-win season and head coach Kevin Brenner said they spent a lot of time over the summer working on raising the level.

“We’ve kind of raised the bar in terms of standards over the summertime and and they came in really prepared,” Brenner said. “It’s not easy playing two games in in a weekend, especially this game today was tough, physically and mentally taxing. So we’ll recover and go again, and I think we will take some valuable lessons out of both games.”

Rutgers-Camden’s opening weekend was an emotional one that began at home Friday with the first Julian Naumenko Day in memory of their teammate who died in January in an automobile accident.

“His teammates, his roommates, they’ve all rallied together and want to put in a really good effort for him this year,” Rutgers-Camden head coach Tim Oswald said. “We really miss him as a player and as a person.”

Early matches in the season are always important for Rutgers-Camden with the gauntlet of playing in the always competitive NJAC conference on the horizon. For senior captain Brandon Valeri this season is an opportunity for one last go around leading a team with a good mix of experience and youth.

“I’m really proud of the team that we have this year,” said Valeri, who gained an extra season of eligibility after missing 2022 with a torn meniscus. “But obviously we have a lot of work to do with seven games in two weeks, nine games in three weeks, and then right after that we get right into our conference play.”

Defensive organization and wide play were both positives on display Saturday for Rutgers-Camden. Former Cherokee teammates Miguel Graterol and Dylan Pino (state champions in 2022) were putting pressure on the defense on the left and right wings with Graterol creating the best chance of the afternoon on a chipped pass that found the head of Nik Grello in front of goal but somehow not the back of the net.

The Scarlet Raptors return home for a pair of matches this week against Penn State Abington and NYU and host Arcadia Sept. 9 before a road trip to Virginia to play Christopher Newport and Virginia Wesleyan. Haverford, meanwhile, host Immaculata on Wednesday before visiting Eastern – Brenner’s former team – on Friday.