Jersey Express S.C.

Jersey Express

Full name	Jersey Express Soccer Club
Nickname(s)	Ironbound
Founded	2007 (as Newark Ironbound Expresss)
Stadium	Lubetkin Field Newark, New Jersey (Capacity: 1,100)
Owner	Joe Branco
Head Coach	George Vichniakov
League	USL Premier Development League
2010	2nd, Mid Atlantic Playoffs: Conference Semifinals
Website	Club home page
Home colors Away colors
Current season

Original Newark Ironbound Express logo

Jersey Express is an American soccer team based in Newark, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 2007, the team plays in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Mid Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Prior to the 2011 season the team was known as Newark Ironbound Express.

The team plays its home games at Lubetkin Field on the campus of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where they have played since 2008. The team's colors are white and burgundy.

The team also fields a team in the USL’s Super-20 League, a league for players 17 to 20 years of age run under the United Soccer Leagues umbrella.

History

Newark Ironbound Express entered the PDL having enjoyed a great deal of success at a junior level with their Ironbound SC club, which was a major force in the USL Super-Y League for several years. The senior Express team began life in the PDL with a bang with a 4-1 opening day victory over fellow expansion team New Jersey Rangers that featured a brace from former New York Red Bull and current Haitian international Jerrod Laventure. Ironbound were consistent all year long, enjoying several impressive victories over much more established sides, notably a 3-0 over Ottawa Fury in early June (in which Ted Niziolek scored a hat trick), a 4-0 win on the road against Ocean City Barons (which featured a Laventure hat-trick), a dominant 3-1 win over 2007's unbeatable Hampton Roads Piranhas, and a battling 4-2 triumph over Virginia Legacy. By the time the final weekend rolled around, they were still in with a shot at a place in the Eastern Conference playoffs: they enjoyed overpowering 6-2 demolition of Westchester Flames, in which Chris Karcz netted three times, and were fortunate to make the playoffs ahead of Ottawa Fury, who had an exactly equal record, but lost out on head-to-head results. Unfortunately, Ironbound's trip to the playoff was a short one as they fell 4-2 first time out to eventual Conference champions Reading Rage, but for a young side in their debut season there was much to applaud. Chris Karcz and Jerrod Laventure were monsters in front of goal, scoring 10 and 9 goals respectively.

The team formally rebranded as Jersey Express on January 6, 2011.^[1]

Players

Current roster

As of June 8, 2011.^[2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ryan Meara[3] 2 DF Mike Konicoff[4] 3 DF Joseph Ruesgen[5] 5 MF Lebogang Pila[6] 6 FW Abdoulaye Coulibaly 7 MF Rob Youhill[7] 8 MF Ansger Otto[8] 9 FW Joseph Ovenseri 10 DF Hemir Niebles[9] 11 FW Jerrod Laventure 12 DF Assaf Sheleg[10] 13 DF Shaun Foster[11]

No. Position Player 14 FW Robert Cabrera 15 MF Andrew Konopelsky 16 MF William Stamatis 17 MF Josh Trott[12] 18 FW Anthony Asante 19 MF Mike Mazzullo[13] 20 MF John Sallhag[14] 21 MF Kevin Meyer[15] 22 MF Joseph Niouky 28 GK John Londono[16] MF Steve Jakubowski[17] DF Chris Karcz

Notable former players

This list of notable former players comprises players who went on to play professional soccer after playing for the team in the Premier Development League, or those who previously played professionally before joining the team.

• Frank Alesci
• Gary Boughton
• Tomer Chencinski
• Dilly Duka
• Neal Kitson
• Gordon Kljestan
• Aviv Volnerman
• David Topolski

Year-by-year

Year	Division	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	Open Cup
2008	4	USL PDL	2nd, Northeast	Conference Semifinals	Did not qualify
2009	4	USL PDL	5th, Northeast	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2010	4	USL PDL	2nd, Mid Atlantic	Conference Semifinals	Did not qualify
2011	4	USL PDL	3rd, Mid Atlantic	Conference Finals	Did not qualify

Head coaches

• George Vichniakov (2008-present)

Stadia

• Lubetkin Field at New Jersey Institute of Technology; Newark, New Jersey (2008-present)
• Stadium at Holmdel High School; Holmdel Township, New Jersey 1 game (2010)
• Stadium at Raritan High School; Hazlet, New Jersey 2 games (2011)

Average attendance

Attendance stats are calculated by averaging each team's self-reported home attendances from the historical match archive at http://www.uslsoccer.com/history/index_E.html.

• 2008: 328
• 2009: 219
• 2010: 378

References

1. ^ Jersey Express Unveils New Name
2. ^ http://www.uslsoccer.com/teams/2011/8986443.html#ROSTER
3. ^ http://www.fordhamsports.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/meara_ryan00.html
4. ^ http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/konicoff_mike00.html
5. ^ http://www.chargerathletics.com/sports/msoc/2007/bios/ruesgen_joseph
6. ^ http://www.spc.edu/pages/2316.asp?ssid=8420&bid=3362
7. ^ http://www.gohofstra.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=22200&ATCLID=3715852
8. ^ http://www.gomustangsports.com/sports/msoc/2010-11/bios/Otto_Ansger
9. ^ http://www.infosportinc.com/hemirniebles.htm
10. ^ http://www.jerseyexpresssoccer.org/frontoffice/youthcordinator/index_E.html
11. ^ http://www.gohofstra.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=22200&ATCLID=204978888
12. ^ http://www.goholycross.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/trott_josh00.html
13. ^ http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=43649&SPID=3884&DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=1482162&Q_SEASON=2010
14. ^ http://www.sfcathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=873
15. ^ http://www.fordhamsports.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/meyer_kevin00.html
16. ^ http://info.caldwell.edu/athletics/mso/10bios/londono.aspx
17. ^ http://liuathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=655

External links

• Official Site
• Official PDL site