Northwestern senior midfielder Rom Brown scored the goal that proved to be the difference in a 1-0 win over visiting New Jersey Institute of Technology Sunday. Highlanders coach Fernando Barboto argued with the main official after the goal that senior forward Justin Weiss was offside before he assisted Brown on the decisive score in the first half, but the Cats emerged on top.
The goal came in the 24th minute when Brown played a forward through ball in Weiss’ direction. The latter tracked it down just before it crossed the endline. Weiss cut the ball back to a charging Brown, who was completely unmarked inside the box for a finish into the bottom left corner.
“I saw Justin making a run and I was able to put him in,” Brown said. “The ball got to the end line, which allowed me to get a little higher up the pitch. He found me around the PK spot, and I saw the far corner open.”.
The Highlanders’ best chance of the match came in the 50th minute off of a corner kick. The ball was played short by kick-taker Maximus Barbototo Crisitian LoGrasso, who one-touched it back to the former to play a right-footed bending ball into the eighteen-yard box. Hugo Tavares found himself with a free header after jumping above his marker, he could not head it down, sending it up and over the bar.
The Wildcats could not finish on a couple of scoring opportunities in the second half. Senior midfielder Collin McCamynearly scored directly off a corner kick in the 65th minute, but his left footed delivery curled into the top of the crossbar. If his kick had curled a few inches later in its flight, the ball would have found the left-side netting.
Two minutes later sophomore midfielder Jason Gajadhar slotted a through ball between two defenders to Weiss, who was sprinting down the left sideline. The captain whipped a ball across the box to open midfielder Peter Reisz , but the freshman could not get on top of the half-volley and sent it wide right of the frame.
Gajadhar played sparingly in the preseason, but was effective in limited minutes Thursday against St. Thomas and Sunday against NJIT. Playing as an attacking midfielder, he retained possession when NU counterattacked. NU coach Russell Payne said he used sophomore Jayvin Van Deventer as a substitute to keep Gajadhar fresh.
“They are two very good players, it’s hard not to have them both on the field at the same time,” Payne said. “But it was the second game of the week, and we knew they would be really good subs for each other.”
Payne also changed his team’s formation from the 4-4-2 it used in Thursday’s game, adding an extra defensive midfielder to create a 4-2-3-1. He said the tactical change was made after watching his midfielders in the season opener, and praised his team for making the shift quickly from one game to the next.
“We realized that our midfielders are actually starting to gel, and we could see that it would be a benefit to play our midfielders closer together as opposed to the [more separated] diamond formation we started with, and we’re being flexible,” Payne said. “Our guys know that the next few games could be very different.”
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