Rowan stifles TCNJ to capture second straight NJAC title

In a season where they’ve been known more for their offense than their defense, Rowan posted their third straight clean sheet in postseason play against the red hot TCNJ en route to another 1-0 win to capture their second straight NJAC Championship on Saturday night on their home turf in Glassboro, N.J.

Where the Profs came into Saturday’s championship with a pair of 1-0 wins over William Paterson and Stockton under their belt, TCNJ was coming off a 9-goal outburst in their two playoff matches, which included a 4-1 dumping of top seed Montclair State behind four goals from Chris Meder.

“We have it on the board, defense wins championships,” head coach Scott Baker said. “We have guys that can score goals, and we proved that all season but at the end of the day, we need defense, we need shutouts. We need to be able to shut teams down and need to be able to win close games like this.”

Rowan’s victory marked the second straight season they’ve accomplished the feat at home and was the third NJAC title in four years for a senior class that came into a program that hadn’t won the conference since 2000.

“The senior group that’s done this three out of four years and has made it to the finals four out of four years is just super impressive,” Baker said. “I think they had some pressure on them this year to do it again, but it’s not that easy. They’ve just been absolutely exceptional.”

While seniors like leading goal scorer Johnny Troiano, playmaker Davide Caputo and defenders Ryan Cleary and Aiden McGuigan have logged more than 20,000 minutes combined during their time in Glassboro, Muhlenberg grad transfer Evan Schlotterbeck was taking part in his first NJAC final and had the goal a half hour in that stood up as the decider.

“The second half was not pretty but these guys they never gave up,” Schlotterbeck said. “We’re so together, we knew what we needed to do, and we got it done.”

Goalkeeper Travis Holiday made five saves on the evening for the Profs but the defensive work to slow Meder (13 goals, 11 assists this season) and company was a coordinated effort from the front line to the back. Meder was held to just one shot in the match but Matt Will and Matias Hornos each registered five shots and Massimo Rodio fired off four. Rowan had several good looks to extend their lead in the second half and give themselves breathing room but were unable to find the final ball on a couple of promising chances.

Now with the automatic bid secured the Profs await news of their opponent and where they’ll play to open their eighth NCAA tournament campaign under head coach Baker. The first and second round matches are slated for Saturday and Sunday.