Christian McGillen celebrates after scoring a goal. McGillen scored two goals against Salisbury on Saturday. Glassboro, N.J. Saturday, September 20, 2025.
Christian McGillen and Johnny Troiano each scored a pair of goals in Rowan men’s soccer’s, 4-1 win, over Salisbury on Saturday. The Profs rebounded against the Gulls after back-to-back non-winning matches and improved to 6-1-1 on the season.
“The biggest adjustment that happened before we stepped on the field was the field. The last field we played on, the field made it difficult to play our game,” Head coach Scott Baker said. “And then there were some other things that were in our control that we didn’t do.”
Salisbury came in hot, with two straight wins against Messiah and Rutgers-Camden. As for Rowan, they were coming off a draw to Scranton and a loss to Haverford.
The Profs came out firing with two shots on goal in the first two minutes. McGillen, after a plethora of passes, was able to put away the second shot for a goal in the second minute. He added another in the 24th minute off an assist from Troiano, who scored his seventh goal of the season at the 17-minute mark.
“I was just hoping [Troiano] would lead the ball. He did it, so it fell perfectly to me,” said McGillen.
The duo of Troiano and McGillen has been special in just a month of soccer this season. Both combined for all four goals in the match.
“I just trusted him [McGillen]. I knew he was running in and I just played it, and it was a great finish by him,” said Troiano.
Rowan held a 3-0 lead headed into halftime. As for Salisbury, they only got one shot on goal in the first half.
Just 12 minutes into the second half, Rowan picked up where they left off. Ryan Cleary found Troiano for his second goal of the game.
Troiano now leads the NJAC in shots with 37. He’s second in shots on goal and goals with 18 and 8, respectively. Troiano trails Rutgers-Newark’s Erick Cortes in both of those statistical categories.
Salisbury eventually got one back and ended the combined shutout between Travis Holiday, who started the first half, and C.J. Norton after Greg Ferreira was called for a yellow card in the box. Dale Gordon took the penalty kick in the 67th minute and put it past Norton. It was Gordon’s first goal of the year.
Rowan would play out the rest of the second half in control, limiting the shots taken by Salisbury. Rowan’s defense stepped up again and although they allowed 10 shots total, only six were on goal.
“We rotated a lot of people and of course, discipline is always a priority for us. Sometimes the decision by an official can sway that one way or another where you know, ” Baker said. “There’s probably seven other fouls that could have been yellow cards for either team… so I wasn’t upset with the fouls on the way we defended today at all.”
The Profs will now travel to Glenside, Pa., to take on Arcadia on Wednesday, Sept. 24.
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