BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The wet weather did nothing to dampen the intensity of Wednesday afternoon's home opener on LIU Field, as the LIU Brooklyn men's soccer team battled NJIT to the last second of regulation, but fell, 1-0 to the undefeated Highlanders.
 
The game was evenly matched throughout, as the two teams were near even on shots (NJIT – 14, LIU – 13), corners (LIU – 10, NJIT – 8), and saves (six by NJIT's Victor Pujades and four by LIU's Cole Palmer).
 
In fact, the lone goal of the contest came on a breakaway as time ran down in the first half. NJIT's leading scorer, Mamadou Guirassy, was fed a ball from midfield and took just two long dribbles to beat his defender and slip the ball past the keeper in a one on one situation from the top of the box.

The Blackbirds kept the pressure on late in the game, but were stymied by Pujades on two great attempts. With just seven minutes on the clock, junior Erik Wahlin had a header off a corner kick that looked like it would go right in the top right corner of the net, but Pujades came out of nowhere to make the leaping save. The NJIT keeper would prevent Wahlin once again on a corner just two minutes later, keeping the Highlanders ahead as the clock ran down.
 
Senior Brian Paredes also had a shot in the final three minutes of action, but it too was stopped by Pujades.
 
Junior Rasmus Hansen led LIU with five shots in the loss, while Wahlin and Naeem Charles both had two, and Paredes, Romario Guscott, Anthony Baltazar and Fredrik Mathisen each took shots in the game as well.
 
Up next, the Blackbirds have a ten-day break before they head to Lawrenceville, New Jersey, to take on Rider, Saturday, September 16 at 1 p.m.