CAMDEN – The Rutgers University-Camden men’s soccer team is hoping to turn a record-setting regular season into a magical post-season run.

The Scarlet Raptors begin that quest Saturday when they host New Jersey City University in the first round of the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship Tournament. Third-seeded Rutgers-Camden and No. 6 seed NJCU will play at 6 p.m. at Rutgers-Camden Community Park.

Ticket prices for the NJAC tournament are $5 for adults and $2 for seniors, children and students.

In the tournament’s other first-round game, #5 The College of New Jersey visits #4 William Paterson University at 6 p.m. Saturday. The winner of that game will play at top seed Montclair State University Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in a semifinal battle. The Rutgers-Camden/NJCU winner visits #2 Richard Stockton College at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The championship game will be played Friday at the site of the highest remaining seed.

Rutgers-Camden enters the game with a record of 15-3-1, a mark which ties the program record for victories in a season shared by the teams in 2004 (15-2-4) and 2005 (15-5-1). The Scarlet Raptors are currently listed first among the “Also Receiving Votes” section of the NSCAA/adidas Division III Top 25 poll, and have been hovering around the national rankings all season. On Sept. 23, the Raptors reached No. 10 in the country, their highest NCAA ranking in program history.

More importantly, the Raptors are listed as the second-ranked team in the Metro Region in the latest NCAA Division III regional poll, used to determine selections to the NCAA Tournament. Rutgers-Camden is hoping to become the first men’s team in school history – in any sport – to play in the NCAA Tournament. The Scarlet Raptors could achieve that goal by winning the NJAC playoffs to gain the conference’s automatic berth, or by earning an at-large bid.

Rutgers-Camden owns a 2-4-1 record in five previous NJAC tournaments. This season marks the fifth straight season the Scarlet Raptors have qualified for the event. They were the conference runner-up in 2005 when they lost a 1-0 title game at The College of New Jersey.

New Jersey City (10-5-2) is the Raptors’ first hurdle and the Gothic Knights have a mission of their own. NJCU has lost in the NJAC finals the last two years, both times against Montclair State. The Gothic Knights, who are making their sixth appearance in the NJAC playoffs, have reached the tournament for four straight years and own a 4-6-2 all-time record in 12 conference playoff games.

New Jersey City, which was ranked as high as No. 12 nationally in the pre-season poll, was the nation’s 24th-ranked team last week when it visited Camden for a regular-season NJAC game. The Scarlet Raptors posted a 3-0 victory, aided by an own goal that broke a scoreless tie.

The Gothic Knights are one of eight teams on the Rutgers-Camden schedule that has been in the national rankings this season. The Scarlet Raptors are 4-3-1 against those teams, with the losses coming against York (currently #2 nationally), Montclair State (#3) and Richard Stockton (#24) and the tie against William Paterson (#11).

Rutgers-Camden and NJCU have had a great rivalry over the last three years. Although the Scarlet Raptors have gone 3-0-2 against the Gothic Knights in that span, the record is deceptive. One of the ties came in the NJAC semifinals in Camden on Oct. 31, 2006, when the outcome for tournament advancement was decided by penalty kicks. NJCU won the tie-breaker, 4-1. Less than two weeks later, Rutgers-Camden won its first ECAC Metro title at NJCU, 1-0.

Sunday’s 3-0 Raptor win was the only multi-goal decision in the last five meetings between the teams.

Overall, Rutgers-Camden leads the all-time series, 17-8-6. Since the NJAC penalty kick game officially counts as a tie, the last win the Gothic Knights had in the series came in Camden on Sept. 24, 2005. NJCU ran all over Rutgers-Camden that day en route to a 5-0 victory.

Rutgers-Camden’s record-setting season started in August when it won the championship at the North Carolina Wesleyan Fall Classic, defeating a pair of pre-season nationally-ranked teams along the way. The Scarlet Raptors edged host North Carolina Wesleyan, ranked No. 9 in pre-season, 1-0 on Aug. 30 on a goal by senior forward Andrew Dorsey (Mt. Laurel, NJ/The King’s Christian School). A day later, the Raptors toppled #25 Greensboro, 3-1. Those victories vaulted Rutgers-Camden into the first weekly NSCAA/adidas Division III Top 25 poll on Sept. 2, earning the Scarlet Raptors a No. 20 ranking.

A week later, the Raptors won the championship of their own Cialella Soccer Classic (Sept. 5 and 7), defeating a strong Eastern University team, 1-0, in the title game. Freshman goalie Tim VanLiew (Deptford, NJ/Deptford) made 10 saves in the championship game to earn Defensive MVP honors. Dorsey, who had his program-record fourth hat trick in an opening-game win over Alvernia College, was named the Offensive MVP. VanLiew and Dorsey joined a pair of backs, junior Chase Komer (Williamstown, NJ/Williamstown) and senior co-captain A.J. O’Malley (Westmont, NJ/Haddon Township) on the Cialella Soccer Classic All-Tournament team.

In their next game, the Raptors edged the University of Scranton, 1-0, on a goal by freshman forward Todd Kleinstuber (Washington Township, NJ/Washington Township). That tally marked the first of three 1-0 games this season where Kleinstuber has scored the winning goal. He has a team-leading four game-winning goals overall – tying the single-season program mark – and owns seven goals for 14 points on the season.

A 2-0 win over Gwynedd-Mercy College Sept. 17 allowed Rutgers-Camden to set a record for the best perfect start (7-0) in program history.

Kleinstuber is second in scoring on the team behind Dorsey (eight goals, six assists, 22 points). Dorsey’s output gives him 30 goals and 73 points in his career, fifth on the all-time list in both categories.

Sophomore midfielder Shane McGrory (Stratford, NJ/Sterling) is tied with Dorsey for the club with six assists. McGrory also has three goals – all game-winning tallies – and ranks third on the team with 12 points.

Rutgers-Camden has won its last five games, including four straight by shutout margins to give the Scarlet Raptors 10 shutouts on the season. The club record is 12, set in 1981.

VanLiew has been the anchor of the strong defense, posting a 0.93 goals-against average and eight shutouts (second only to 11 shutouts by Jim Skene in 1981), while earning every decision in goal for the 15-3-1 Raptors. He already has set a program record for wins by a goalie in one season, breaking the 1981 mark of 13 by Skene. His GAA is third on the single-season charts behind David Cunningham, who had a 0.71 GAA in 2006 and a 0.74 mark in 2004.

VanLiew owns all four of the Raptors latest shutouts, one shy of the program record for consecutive shutouts by Skene (Oct. 24-Nov. 7, 1981) and Pete DeFeo (Sept. 19-Oct. 1, 1987). He hasn’t allowed a goal since a first-half tally in a 2-1 win over Rutgers-Newark on Oct. 15. He has logged 423:04 consecutive scoreless minutes. Skene holds the record of 561:35 consecutive shutout minutes in 1981.

Along the way this season, Kleinstuber has captured three honors as the NJAC Rookie of the Week (Sept. 15, Sept. 22 and Oct. 27). VanLiew was named the conference Rookie of the Week on Oct. 20 and earned both NJAC Defensive Player of the Week and ECAC Div. III Metro Defensive Player of the Week honors this week.

Third-year Rutgers-Camden Head Coach Tim Oswald owns a remarkable 41-14-10 record with the Scarlet Raptors entering the NJAC playoffs.