JACKSONVILLE, FL—NJIT and North Florida played to a 1-1 tie through 110 minutes in ASUN Conference action at Hodges Stadium Wednesday afternoon.

The match was originally scheduled for October 8 but was postponed due to Hurricane Matthew's path along the east coast of Florida.

NJIT (7-5-4, 3-2-1 ASUN), which tallied a point in the draw against North Florida (8-3-2, 4-0-1 ASUN), sits in third place with 10 points.  Playoff seeding will be determined after Saturday's matchups.  NJIT will be the #3 seed with a Lipscomb loss and a #4 seed with a Lipscomb win/draw.  FGCU will visit Lipscomb on Saturday at 8pm.

NJIT will conclude its regular season with a non-conference match against St. Bonaventure on October 29 with a 2pm start at Kean University East Campus Facility in Hillside, NJ.

The Highlanders will recognize seven graduating seniors -- Nick Cipriano, Christian Foust, Nikola Gogic, and Victor Kausch, Marco Luna, Stephen McGeever and Rickardo Oldham prior to the match. Each fan in attendance will receive a senior day signed poster.

NJIT had its first scoring opportunity of the match in the 29^th minute, after a turnover by North Florida. The Highlanders began a quick attack up the field to junior co-captain Mamadou Guirassy but Guirassy's shot was blocked.

Guirassy had another chance in the 35^th minute on a breakaway but his shot sailed high.

North Florida took a 1-0 lead in the 39^th minute on a free kick set piece goal from junior Micah Smoak.  Smoak, who notched his fourth goal of the season, blasted the ball just inside the right post into the top left corner, past a diving Victor Pujades.

The Ospreys had an early opportunity in the second half, in the 54^th minute.  Freshman Glenn Johnson started the play by, advancing the ball to Aidan D'Mello on the left side and D'Mello served the ball to the right back post, finding a running Adrian Nunez, whose header sailed over the crossbar.

NJIT's Juan Zapata scored the equalizer in the 82^nd minute off a cross from Phillip Costa, knotting the match at 1-1.  Costa served the cross from the left side of the field, to Zapata, who slipped behind his defender, for a one-time touch, netting his first collegiate goal.

In the overtime period, North Florida's Glenn Johnson was credited with the only shot, which was blocked by an NJIT defender in the 93^rd minute.

NJIT's Pujades and North Florida's Juanes Fajardo each played the full 110 minutes, posting one save in the 1-1 double overtime draw.

The Ospreys edged the visiting Highlanders in shots, 8-7 and held a 9-3 advantage in corner kicks.

North Florida earned its first-ever national ranking at No. 22 in the latest TopSoccerDrawer.com National Poll and ranked as high as No. 24 in this week's NCAA RPI. 

Last season, NJIT defeated #22 St. Francis Brooklyn, 3-2, marking the second consecutive season in which NJIT scored an upset win over a nationally-ranked side.  On September 20, 2014, the Highlanders upset Navy, also ranked #22 in the nation at the time, 1-0.

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