Women's College Soccer
Rider University 2, Delaware State University 1 (ot)
DOVER, Del.--Whether you call it sudden death, sudden victory or Golden Goal, offensive players love it and defensive players don't. Rider defender Lauren Mahar wanted it over quick. “It was going to be a long 10 or 20 minutes so I took the free kick and I just put it upper 90 (top corner of net).”
Junior Lauren Mahar (Barnegat, N.J./Colonia) scored her first goal of the season just 25 seconds into overtime to give Rider a victory at Delaware State Tuesday night. Mahar took a free kick from 40 yards out to win the game on the golden goal. “When we got the free kick we discussed a play,” Mahar said, “and I said ?no, I think I'm just going to go for it' and it went in.”
A mid-fielder, Mahar moved to the back position three games ago, replacing her injured twin sister Erin, who is out with a broken wrist. Erin scored her first collegiate goal earlier this year. “Erin got her first one this year and I felt I had to get one to do her proud,” Lauren said. It was the second career goal for Lauren.
“The first half we were attacking a lot, really going at them, but we were a bit unlucky in that nothing was going in,” Mahar said.
“It wasn't one of our more stellar performances but I'm very pleased that we came out with urgency in overtime,” said head coach Kevin Long.
Junior Kayla Devlin (Clifton, N.J./Clifton) scored on a corner kick from freshman Lauren Musumeci (Annandale, N.J./North Hunterdon) in the 10th minute of play to give Rider (5-4-3) a 1-0 lead.
“Kayla scored early and we thought things were going to go our way,” Long said. “She had an injury (leg) early in the season and I think it shows in her play that she is getting healthy. Hopefully it continues and we'll see her get more goals. We'd love to see her find the net more often.”
It was Devlin's fifth career goal, and the team-high 13th point for Musumeci.
Rider freshman goalkeeper Alex Post (Chalfont, Pa./Central Bucks West) made four saves and made Devlin's goal hold up until Delaware State (2-7-1) scored in the 85th minute to send the game into overtime. “Alex played well,” Long said. “I don't blame her on their goal. Anytime it is one on one in the back the offensive player has the advantage.”
“It doesn't matter what team you play, if you make a mistake they are going to capitalize,” Mahar said. “We found that out the hard way today. I'm just glad we came out hard after that.”
Rider out-shot Delaware State 16-9. “Throughout the game we had a lot of chances,” Long said. “We dominated play however they had some great forwards who were crafty and really fast and causing problems throughout the game, and they got in on us to tie the score late. They were getting in more and more as the game went on and finally scored.”
Rider defeated Delaware State 3-0 at Rider last season in the only other meeting between these two teams. “They are a much improved team,” Long said. “I really take my hat off to them.”
The contest was the final non-conference game of the regular season. Rider went 4-3-3 in non-conference games this year. “I think that's great,” Long said. “We had a tough out of conference schedule and the team responded very well. I'm very pleased with that. The team should be very proud of that. Now we want a winning record in the conference.”
Rider travels to Loyola for a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game Saturday. The Rider defenders won't mind if it goes overtime, as long as the result is the same.
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