Entering Wednesday’s game against SUNY Cortland, the first in season Top 25 poll was released and Rowan was ranked No. 2 in the country. SUNY Cortland moved up to No. 4 in what was now set up to be a top five matchup on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at the Rowan Soccer and Lacrosse Complex. In the clash of two top 10 teams, Rowan came out victorious in their white out game, defeating the Red Dragons 1-0 to keep their unbeaten streak alive.

No. 2 vs No. 4 was off to an aggressive start with neither team giving up an inch. Rowan has won every game this season by only a single goal, close wins are something that they have proven to achieve early on in 2025.

The ability to get out those games are not only a sign of strength, but of adversity. No goals were scored in the first half, but Rowan still controlled the shot selection, placing four on goal to SUNY Cortland’s zero.

“Each game, you have got to come out and you have to play whoever you’re competing against,” head coach Scott Baker said. “And Cortland’s great… we know teams are coming at us and there’s a lot of good teams out there, so we have got to bring our best.”

The Red Dragons were also behind in fouls (6-2) and offside calls (3-0). One statistic in their favor however, was the number of corner kicks (3-2). Even with all of that entering halftime, the score was deadlocked at zero.

The game’s best scoring chance came four minutes into the second half, when Johnny Troiano was in the box with a chance to put it in the back of the net. With multiple bodies in the way of fire, the Red Dragon’s narrowly survived.

Through the first 60 minutes, Cortland’s keeper, Jordan Ott, was the player of the game. Saving four shots from attack after attack.

Between the 65th and 70th minutes in the match, Rowan was relentless in the attacking zones. From competitive corners to crosses in the box, everything was going right, aside from a goal actually being scored. In hindsight, this is what should be expected from two top four teams in the country in all of Division III men’s soccer.

With 13 minutes left in the match, Christian McGillen shot a screamer that just nearly eclipsed the crossbar and went out of play. Another great chance for the Profs that fell just short.

“You got to give that little bit of extra effort inside the 18, and you got to fight for it,” Baker said. “And sometimes it takes one chance and sometimes it takes 20 and you don’t know, and you have to keep fighting for it.”

Rowan’s first goal finally came after McGillen finally buried one in after 80 minutes off a pass from his teammate Johnny Troiano.

“It felt great to score,” Kurak said. “We outworked them, we did everything.”

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