Men's College Soccer
Fairfield University 5, Rider University 1
LAWRENCEVILLE—The Broncs lost to Fairfield in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game Friday. “We told the players about Fairfield's size and how they were going to play,” said Rider head coach Russ Fager, “but when we walked onto the field we didn't react to it. We were not unprepared, but we did not look mentally ready to do battle.”
For Rider (4-10, 1-5 MAAC) freshman Brandon Sebastian (Monroe Township, N.J./Monroe Twp.) started and rewarded his coach by scoring his first collegiate goal with a 20-yard strike off of an assist from junior Andrew Cotes (Selden, N.Y./Newfield). “I felt Fairfield's size would be a factor so we gave (6'1”) Brandon a start,” Fager said, “and he did okay for himself. He is going to be a very good player. He's strong, he's fast, he's technical and he does a lot of things right.”
Fairfield (8-5-1, 5-1-1 MAAC), the defending MAAC champion, scored three goals in the first 17 minutes and led 5-0 at the half. Erik Illisije scored twice for the Stags.
Freshman Matt Perrella (North Brunswick, N.J./N. Brunswick) started in goal despite suffering an ankle injury last game and made one save in 14 minutes of work. “He twisted his ankle in the Siena game (October 23) and did not practice Monday or Tuesday,” Fager said. “He trained Wednesday and Thursday fine but I think he got wacked again today on the same ankle,” Fager said.
Sophomore Christopher Pimentel (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial) played the final 76 minutes and made three saves.
Michael O'Keeffe made five saves for Fairfield.
The Stags out-shot Rider 18-13, including 12-9 in the first half. “In the second half we did okay,” Fager said, “but not great. We should have done much, much better.”
Rider lost 2-1 at Fairfield last year. Rider and Fairfield have now met 17 times since the series began in 1996 with Rider winning five, the last Bronc win coming in 2004.
“Fairfield is a nice side,” Fager said. “I don't think they are as good as we made them look today. We did some foolish things today. We did not do a very good job on taking away serves, something we worked on the last few days.”
Fairfield won the MAAC in 2008 and 2006 and was MAAC runner-up in 2005.
Rider hosts nationally ranked Iona Sunday at 2pm in the final home game of the season. Rider's graduating seniors will be honored prior to the game. “This will be the best Iona team we've seen,” Fager said. “They are ranked 22nd or 23rd nationally and are playing very well. We have to come out with the idea of playing hard, defending and compete. We have to compete.”
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