Men's College Soccer
Rider University 2, Manhattan College 2 (2ot)
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Game
RIVERDALE, NY?The Broncs and Jaspers tied in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game Sunday. It was the second consecutive game that Rider went into overtime. “This was a game we thought we should have won,” said Rider head coach Russ Fager. “The guys fought hard. I thought we played relatively well. Good enough to win the game.”
Freshman Jim Bradley (Sewell, N.J./Washington Township) picked up a loose ball and scored in the 29th minute following a corner kick to give Rider (5-8-2, 0-4-2 MAAC) a 1-0 lead. “We got a good goal by Bradley early in the game,” Fager said. For Bradley it was his third goal of the season.
Freshman Tom Dunn (Westampton, N.J./Rancocas Valley) took a pass from sophomore Nico Tramontana (Vineland/Sacred Heart) and scored to give Rider a 2-0 lead just 1:34 into the second half. “Tommy Dunn hit an absolutely phenomenal shot,” Fager said. “He scored on a great shot, about 20 yards out, with his left foot while running at goal.”
“I was out wide and Nico got the ball in the middle,” Dunn said. “He played a serve ball and I just one-timed it to the far post from the top of the 18.”
The goal was the first collegiate goal for Dunn. “Scoring the first goal felt good,” Dunn said. “I had more assists than goals in high school.”
“Dunny struggled a bit on Friday and had a great game today,” Fager said. “We put him in the middle of the field and he played very well. He controlled a lot of the game.”
“I felt a lot more comfortable today, playing the middle,” Dunn said. “That is where I played in high school. I was involved more today.”
Manhattan (2-10-2, 0-4-1 MAAC) got on the board with a penalty kick in the 58th minute and tied the score at 2-2 in the 64th minute on a header off of a corner kick. “The PK was a hand ball in the box but in reality the ball was smashed into our defender on the serve and it hit his hand, so it should not have been called a hand ball,” Fager said. “On their second goal the ball was on the line and the linesman called it out for a goal kick but the referee overruled him and called a corner kick and they scored on it.”
Manhattan out-shot Rider 15-11 in regulation, 5-4 in overtime, and 20-14 for the game. “We didn't do a bad job defending because we didn't give up a goal in regular play,” Fager said. “We gave a goal on a questionable pk and on a corner kick that should have never been.”
Junior goalkeeper Randall Zapolski (Lawrence) made five saves, while John Ciano made four saves for Manhattan.
Rider beat Manhattan 2-0 in the 2006 season finale. The two teams have met 12 times with Rider holding a 6-2-4 advantage in the series that began in 1997. “We had a chance to win today,” Fager said. “A number of guys played very well. We had a pretty good game overall.”
Rider travels to Loyola October 27. Loyola (12-2, 5-0 MAAC) is the top ranked team in the region and is in first place in the MAAC. “Loyola is going to be a big challenge, no question,” Fager said. “We're just going to go into it and battle.”
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