BRANCHBURG, NJ - The Northampton men's soccer team picked up a huge Region 19 road victory on Thursday afternoon, downing Raritan Valley Community College, 4-3, at the Golden Lion Soccer Plex. 

The Spartans got on the board first, as Nicolas Arevalo (Bogota, Columbia/Pleasant Valley) found Elijah Ejiofor (Gonesse, France/Pocono Mt. West) on a cross to put Northampton up 1-0 at the 19:30 mark. 

Raritan Valley tied the match at 1-1 when Ivan Lianes found the back of the net at the 37:52 mark. 

The game remained tied entering halftime, but just 6 minutes into the second half, Northampton's Gershon Bangura (Greencastle, PA/Greencastle) broke free toward the RVCC goal, before getting tackled in the box, resulting in a penalty kick.  Ejiofor converted the PK for his second goal of the contest, giving the Spartans a 2-1 advantage. 

Just two minutes later RVCC tied the game as German Romero deposited a pass from Adan Vigo past Spartan goaltender Omar Zatar (Paterson, NJ/Pocono Mt. West). 

The action remained end-to-end as the Spartans responded just a minute later when Brendan Nye (Catasauqua, PA/Catasauqua) took the ball down the sideline and crossed it into the box, where the Lion defenders converged and inadvertently scored an own goal, giving Northampton a 3-2 lead. 

Wisdom Ntona (Johannesburg, South Africa/Queens) then gave Northampton a 2-goal cushion when he scored unassisted at the 61:05 mark to put the Spartans up 4-2. 

At the 80 minute mark, Northampton returned the own-goal favor on a defensive mix-up, making the score 4-3. 

The Spartans were able to hold off RVCC over the final 10 minutes to earn the victory. 

Omar Zatar (Paterson, NJ/Pocono Mt. West) finished with 4 saves for Northampton.

The win moves Northampton to 2-1-0 overall and 2-1-0 in Region 19. 

Raritan Valley falls to 1-2-1 overall and 1-1-1 in Region 19. 

The Spartans are back in action on Saturday when they host Delaware County Community College.  Kick-off is scheduled for 12pm.