HOBOKEN, N.J. (September 2, 2011) – Senior Zach Bowman took a great pass from sophomore Edward Rupp and buried it in the net late in the second half of a scoreless tie between No. 21 Stevens Institute of Technology and New York University on Friday night. The Ducks (1-0-0) earned a 1-0 opening night win at the DeBaun Athletic Complex; the first collegiate victory for Stevens interim head coach Devin Rensing. It was also the first action of the year for the Violets, who drop to 0-1-0.
Early in the match, it was Stevens sophomore goalkeeper Paul Killian who kept the game tense, as he made a stellar save on a close shot from the left side by Chris Ramirez (Milltown, N.J.) 10 minutes into the game. He then came up big as NYU peppered the goal with three consecutive shots by Niki Chow (Los Gatos, Calif.), David DeLooper (Pennington, N.J.) and Paolo Luciano (North White Plains, N.Y.) five minutes later.
The Ducks generated their best scoring chance of the first half with less than one minute to go, breaking out with a three-on-two advantage. Violet junior goalkeeper Jonah Poster (Newton, Mass.) ended the threat by intercepting the final pass, however, to keep the game scoreless heading into the break.
Junior Zach Adler had a couple of good chances early on in the second half, one notably at 57:47 where sophomore Leonardo Casas sent a crossing pass into the box that Adler just missed connecting on.
The crowd was brought to life as senior Tarik Kramcha ripped a close free kick opportunity tantalizingly near the post with 22 minutes left in the game. Then, Adler also had another good pass in his direction – this time from senior Benjamin Hirsch; and touched it past Poster, but the ball rolled to a stop outside the cage with 19 minutes to go.
The Ducks finally connected at the 76:23 mark, where Rupp found Bowman alone on the right side and the senior buried it. NYU managed just one more shot from that point as Killian earned a shutout in his first collegiate start.