Men's College Soccer
Liberty University 4, Rider University 0
LEXINGTON, VA—The Broncs lost to Liberty Friday afternoon in the first round of the Jay Sculley Memorial Tournament, hosted by the Virginia Military Institute.
“The first 20 minutes or so we did a nice job, controlling the tempo of the game,” said Rider head coach Russ Fager. “Then they began to find the rhythm themselves and began to take control of the play.”
Liberty (3-0) scored on a rebound in the 37th minute of play, taking a 1-0 lead. “(Sophomore goalkeeper Christopher) Pimentel (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial) made a fantastic save,” Fager said, “but another player ran onto it and scored from a very severe angle. It was a beautiful goal.”
Liberty scored again in the 66th minute, also off of a rebound, taking a 2-0 lead. “In the second half they took control of the game,” Fager said. “They have five or six quality players.”
The Flames made it 3-0 in the 71st minute on a shot from in close and took a 4-0 lead off of a corner kick with eight minutes remaining.
Four different players scored for Liberty. “They are a very good team,” Fager said.
Liberty out-shot Rider (0-4) 14-4, including 10-1 in the first half. “We didn't get any quality chances in the first half,” Fager said.
Two of Rider's four shots came in the final five minutes of the game. Liberty had nine corner kicks to Rider's one.
Pimentel played 79 minutes in the Rider goal and made five saves while allowing three goals. “I though Pimentel did a very good job,” Fager said.
Freshman Matt Perrella (North Brunswick, N.J./N. Brunswick) made his collegiate debut, playing the final 11 minutes in the Rider nets and made one save and allowed one goal.
Andrew Madero made one save for Liberty.
“(Senior) Cameron Bertel (Lititz, Pa./Manheim Township) did a great job organizing us in the back,” Fager said. “I though he played very well and did a lot of positive things for us. Cotes (junior Andrew Cotes of Selden, N.Y./Newfield) I though worked his tail off again today. He is probably the one guy who has been consistent throughout our four games.”
This was the first-ever meeting between Rider and Liberty in men's soccer. The Rider men's basketball team played Liberty last season in the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament.
Rider takes on host VMI Sunday at 4pm.
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