Toms River, NJ-The men's soccer continued their 11 game unbeaten streak with a convincing 3-1 victory over host Ocean County in the East District B Championship game. On an idyliic fall date, the Lions took advantage of an early chance as SO Sebastian Oboukhov found the back of the net in the 7th minute with a left footed shot off of two excellent passes from FR Angel Cortes and SO German Burset Romero.
The Lions wasted no time adding to thier lead. Less than 20 minutes later, German Burset Romero got involved again and finished a shot in the bottom right corner of the goal off a wonderful back heel pass from FR Carlos Marquina. RVCC would add one more goal before the half as FR Salvatore Stivala went on the attack and beat his defender in a one-on-one situation right outside of the penalty area. That would end the Lion's scoring on the day, and the second half focus would shift to the RVCC defense.
SO Juan Orozco made 6 saves on the day. Orozco was helped by the efforts of SO Jeff Cubero who controlled the back line and was named MVP of the game. The rest of the Lion's first year defenders Brody Belemonte, Ivan Llanes, and Adan Chaparro Vigo all stepped up to keep Ocean in check.
With the win RVCC will return to the National Division III Men's Championship Tournament for the first time since 2022. The team will head to Batavia, NY as the #8 seed, where they will square off against top seed and nationally ranked #1, Dallas College-Richland at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, November 12th.