GLENSIDE, Pa. – The Maritime men's soccer season came to a close in the opening round of the four-round ECAC Division III Men's Soccer Championship on Saturday evening. The third-seeded Privateers fell to the second-seeded Rutgers-Camden Scarlet Raptors by the score of 2-1 on Jean Lenox West Field, hosted by Arcadia University.
 
The Privateers were led by junior Parker Gallt (Las Vegas, Nev./Plainfield South (Ill.)), who led the team with five of its 11 shots overall on the game including the team's lone goal of the game in the 73rd minute. Freshman Anthony Palazzolo (Huntington Station, N.Y./Walt Whitman) had two shots, while senior Harry Colucci (Port Jefferson, N.Y./Earl L. Vandenmeulen), sophomores Anthony Sblendorio (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) and Aleks Olthoff-Cusumano (Eastport, N.Y./Eastport-South Manor) and freshman Neil Dillon (Floral Park, N.Y./Floral Park) all had shots during the match.
 
Defensively sophomore Michael Rodriguez (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) had three saves while yielding both of Rutgers-Camden's goals.
 
Gallt had the opening shot of the match that went wide right just under five minutes into the match. The Scarlet Raptors earned a corner kick in the eighth minute and capitalized to take a 1-0 lead just 7:48 into the match.
 
The Privateers had their first corner kick chance of the match in the 18th minute as Colucci sent the ball into play, but Maritime could not get a shot off of the corner.
 
Freshman Jerome Eastwood (Houston, Texas/Stratford) took a corner kick in the 30th minute of play, but Gallt's ensuing shot was blocked by the Rutgers-Camden defense. Eastwood added another corner just minutes later and found Palazzolo's head, but the header shot was blocked again by the Scarlet Raptor defense.
 
Dillon's lone shot of the match came with just two minutes left in the opening period, but it was above the target as Maritime went into the halftime break trailing by a 1-0 score.
 
In the second half Rutgers-Camden got on the board again in the 54th minute of play off of a corner kick to open up a two-goal advantage.
 
Colucci took a shot in the 60th minute, followed by a shot just several seconds later by Olthoff-Cusumano that was blocked. Gallt's 62nd minute shot was off the target and wide left as the Privateers continued to struggle to get shots on goal.
 
Maritime finally broke through in the opening second of the 73rd minute as Gallt registered his team-leading 16th goal of the season on an unassisted strike to slice the Scarlet Raptor lead in half at 2-1.
 
Sblendorio took the final Maritime shot of the match in the 78th minute but it was again blocked by the very sound Rutgers-Camden defense as the Scarlet Raptors held on for the 2-1 victory.
 
Maritime's season comes to a close at 11-6-2 overall, with five wins and one tie coming in conference competition. The team returns much of its offensive production, their entire defense and an all-conference goalkeeper back to the field next season and will look to build towards their third-ever Skyline Conference Championship.
 
Rutgers-Camden (9-8-4, 2-5-2 NJAC) will return to the field tomorrow to play host and top-seeded Arcadia for a 2 p.m. start in Glenside, Pa. Earlier in the day the Arcadia Knights knocked off the Neumann Knights by the score of 3-1 to advance to Sunday's regional final.