Men's College Soccer
Canisius College 3, Rider University 1
LAWRENCEVILLE—Despite out-shooting the Golden Griffins 21-9, the Broncs lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game to Canisius Friday. “Very disappointing,” said Rider head coach Russ Fager. “When you play that well for 70 minutes and you dominate a team as much as we did today, maybe the better team did not win. It may be unfair but that is the way soccer goes.”
Canisius senior Alan McGreal of Ireland scored twice in the final three minutes to break a 1-1 tie. “We made some mistakes at the end that we should not have made,” Fager said.
For Rider (3-7, 0-2 MAAC) sophomore Sal Lubrano (Flemington, N.J./Hunterdon Central) took a pass from junior Andrew Cotes (Selden, N.Y./Newfield) and scored on a 15-yard header to tie the score at 1-1 mid-way through the first half.
“The game should not have been in question with 15 minutes left,” Fager said. “We should have been sitting on a 4-1 lead by then.”
Canisius (3-8-1, 2-1 MAAC) took a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute of play when Greg Anne took a pass from McGreal and scored from seven yards out.
McGreal scored on a break-away with 2:54 remaining for the game-winner and added an insurance goal with six seconds left. “For most of the game I was telling the guys they have to be aware of where number seven (McGreal) is,” Fager said.
Rider freshman goalkeeper Matt Perrella (North Brunswick, N.J./N. Brunswick) made three saves. “Matt played well for 75 minutes,” Fager said. Adam Miller made seven saves for Canisius.
“I thought everyone played well today,” Fager said. “We did not have a bad performance on the field today. We did everything that we worked on all week. We got into the box, we got quality shots, we got behind defenders, we served well and we defended well.”
The Broncs lost 3-0 at Canisius last year. Rider and Canisius have now met 14 times, with Rider winning eight, the last win coming in 2007.
Rider hosts Niagara in a MAAC contest Sunday at 1pm. “That is going to be a real battle,” Fager said. “We're going to have to come with our heads up and prepared to play. The way we played today is the way we are capable of playing. It was encouraging the way we played today, but that doesn't put a 'W' up on the board.”
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