Play versus Philadelphia University Promotes Jaffé and Jackson for CACC Weekly Awards
New Haven, Conn. - (11/3/2015) – On Thursday, October 29, the Chestnut Hill College men’s soccer team gave its fans a scintillating playoff preview, posting a 2-0 shutout of crosstown rival Philadelphia University and booking a third consecutive berth in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship Tournament in their regular-season finale. Senior midfielder Nicholas Jaffe (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and junior goalkeeper James Jackson (Sewell, N.J.) made sure a 25-6 shot deficiency was no more than a footnote, the former scoring twice and the latter keeping the defending league champions off the scoreboard with a litany of sparkling saves, en route to respectively collecting the league’s weekly Player and Defensive Player of the Week awards.
Philadelphia University (8-5-4, 6-4-2) dominated the first half, and surely thought it had a lead in hand just after the half hour. But Jackson stoned freshman midfielder Jason Rocha (Huntingdon Valley, Pa.) with a lunging save before rising high to palm away a blast by senior midfielder Ryan Schroy (Medford, N.J.) ticketed for the top right corner of the net.
Chestnut Hill College held off the Rams’ charge long enough to seize control behind the brilliant shot-making of Jaffé. Fresh off his nomination to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District 1 Team earlier this afternoon, the senior star gave the Scarlet and Gold a lead at the 55:07 mark, when he was played into the box and maneuvered his way into a one-on-one situation. That was advantage Jaffé, and he made no doubt with a powerful blast to the top left corner.
The Rams came within a hair of equalizing just five minutes later, but Jackson dove to parry a shot off the right post, and Rocha’s one-time rebound rattled the crossbar, keeping the home side in the driver’s seat. Two more Jackson saves preceded the dagger by Jaffé, who directed a 35-yard free kick past Philadelphia University sophomore Eric Gutierrez (Croydon, Pa.) for a 2-0 lead at 86:28.
Jaffé recorded all but one of the Griffins’ six shots in his second multi-goal performance of the season, the third of his career. He finished the regular season with 10 goals, the team’s highest total since Gavin Reid ’12 scored 12 during the 2011 campaign. Jackson was spectacular between the pipes, racking up eight saves to notch his 12th career shutout and pull even with assistant coach Michael Goldstein ’13 atop the program record books.
Less than a week later, on Monday, November 2, Jaffé and Jackson delivered again in a penalty kick playoff victory over the same fifth-seeded Rams (2-2, 2OT, PK’s 5-4), earning the #4 Griffins a CACC Semifinal matchup versus #1 Wilmington University at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, in Waterbury, Connecticut.
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