PISCATAWAY, N.J. (September 15, 2013) – The Rutgers men’s soccer team (3-2-1) made it two-in-a-row with its first shutout of the season in a 3-0 victory over South Carolina (2-4-0) Sunday afternoon at Yurcak Field.

The Scarlet Knights who had relinquished 1-0 early leads in games with Duke, Elon and No. 5 Akron earlier this season made sure it was not the case against the Gamecocks.

“It’s the first game I felt we really put together a full 90 minutes of soccer,” said Rutgers head coach Dan Donigan.  “We had some beautiful goals and great play out of everybody on the field.  We were able to get some of our reserve guys some more minutes which is only going to make us a better and deeper team as we head into conference play now.  Overall, it was a great day for us.”

RU went up 1-0 in the 12^th minute as sophomore Mael Corboz (Green Brook, N.J.) put away his fifth tally of the 2013 season.  Freshman Spencer Hambleton (Scotch Plains, N.J.) had the takeaway in the midfield to set up Corboz.  The sophomore Scarlet Knight took the ball and played it off the Gamecock defense above the box and had his shot deflected by South Carolina goalie Marco Velez into the back of the net.

South Carolina almost had the equalizer shortly after.  Gamecock forward Asa Kryst drew out RU keeper David Greczek (Fairfield, N.J.) trying to stop shot, but Scarlet Knights defender Drew Morgan (Atlanta, Ga.) swept in to clear the ball away from the net.  Morgan returned to the field on Sunday after missing Friday night’s contest with Princeton having to sit out the contest due to his red card from last week.  

Rutgers would add two insurance goals in the second half.  Corboz registered the first of his two assists seting up senior forward Kene Eze (Sayreville, N.J.) at the left post to put it away in the 62^nd minute.  It was Eze’s fourth goal of the year.

Six minutes later sophomore Mitchell Taintor (Storrs, Conn.) posted his first goal of the year off a corner kick.  Corboz kicked the ball into play from the right corner where it was headed by Eze to Taintor at the front of the goal.

RU’s Greczek recorded his first career shutout in net stopping four saves. Velez made three saves in the Gamecock loss playing 80 minutes of action.  Reserve Chris Duzan played the game’s final 10 minutes.

The Scarlet Knights outshot the Gamecocks, 15-12, while South Carolina held a slight advantage in corners, 6-5.

The Rutgers men’s soccer team closes out its five game homestand on Friday at 8 p.m. in their American Athletic Conference opener against SMU.

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-RU-