No. 24-ranked Rowan men’s soccer completed a comeback victory on Wednesday evening, defeating The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) Lions, 2-1, at the Rowan Soccer and Lacrosse Complex. The Profs finish their 2025 regular season campaign with a 12-3-4 overall record, as well as becoming winners of their last three fixtures en route to being playoff-bound within the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC).

“A winning streak at the end of the season is what you hope for all the time,” head coach Scott Baker said. “I’m proud of the guys; they did great, they finished the season strong.”

Per usual, Rowan was aggressive from the start, taking a flurry of shots. Despite this, the Lions had their lone chance to pounce in the first half when graduate student Evan Schlotterbeck tripped TCNJ’s Chris Meder inside the box with 34 minutes gone. 

Meder stepped up and found the left corner as Prof’s keeper Travis Holiday dove the opposite way. The Lions had capitalized on their penalty kick, and Rowan went down, 1-0, going into halftime. 

The Profs entered the second half on a mission, recognizing that the scoreboard didn’t reflect their performance through the first 45 minutes of the match.

“Coming out here, we knew we were going to win,” junior Carill Asanji said. “We didn’t play scared, we kept going, kept rolling and all.”

In the 73rd minute, Rowan earned a vital corner at the far flag. Senior Davide Caputo sent an inswinging cross into the box, which ended up taking a subtle deflection toward the far post. Asanji was heroically there to tap it in for the equalizer. 

“I think it’s just experience and just listening to my coaches because I did play forward before, so I know how to move in the box,” Asanji said. “I felt the goal come before it happened.”

Only a few minutes later, Caputo was once again on the attack and pacing down the right wing. To TCNJ’s shock, his forceful cross toward the near post deflected off a sliding Lions defender and reached the back of the net. Rowan took charge via the TNCJ’s own goal.

“You make the right runs and good things happen,” Baker said. “We’ve been talking about it all week, is making sure our runs are going to the near post and far post, and then good things happen whether you get the ball or not.”

The brown and gold have now won four of the last five matches, and with 17 conference points, they have secured themselves the third seed and a home tournament game in the quarterfinals. Rowan men’s soccer’s quest for a second consecutive NJAC title begins this Saturday against William Paterson at home in the NJAC Quarterfinal.

“I still think that’s our peak performance when we’re playing like this and getting the goals,” Baker said. “We don’t want to change anything.”

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