Men's College Soccer
Rider University 1, Niagara University 1 (2 OT)
NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, NY-The Broncs came back to tie Niagara in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game Friday night.
Rider sophomore Dan Friga (Clifton, N.J./Passaic County Tech) scored with just 6:39 left in the second half to tie the score at 1-1, sending the game into overtime. Senior Andrew Cotes (Selden, N.Y./Newfield) and senior Jim Bradley (Washington Twp., N.J./Washington Township) assisted on the goal. The goal was Friga's second of the season and fourth of his career.
"It was a very nice goal," Fager said. "We were pressing for quite a bit of time in the second half. We served the ball into the box, Friga collected the ball, turned and put the ball into the lower left-hand corner of the net. Friga played very well."
Niagara took a 1-0 lead 19 minutes into the game.
Niagara (4-8-2, 2-2-1 MAAC) out-shot Rider (2-10-1, 1-2-1 MAAC) 27-8, including 9-4 in shots on goal. "The shots on goal were accurate, but the total shots count is very misleading," Fager said. "They had a lot of 35-yard shots that were not close to the net that they counted as shots."
Rider sophomore goalkeeper Matt Perrella (North Brunswick, N.J./N. Brunswick) made eight saves.
Junior Corey Diamond (East Brunswick/U. of New Hampshire) played for the first time since cracking his head open against Saint Peter's on October 8. "We got Corey back for the first time in two weeks and he played very well," Fager said. "Cotes had his normal good game and Bradley was a real workhorse, playing almost the entire game and the overtime."
Junior Sal Lubrano (Flemington, N.J./Hunterdon Central) had three of Rider's eight shots.
Rider is 1-1-1 in its last three games. "We beat Manhattan, we came back and played the defending champs (Loyola) to a 1-0 game, and now we tied last year's conference finalist," Fager said.
The game was Rider's first overtime contest of the season. The last time Rider played OT was a 1-0 win over Saint Peter's in the 2009 season finale.
The Broncs defeated Niagara 3-1 in Lawrenceville last season. The last time Rider was at Niagara the Broncs lost 7-1 in 2008. These two teams have now met 14 times since the series began in 1997 with Rider winning seven with two ties.
Rider stays in Western New York to take on Canisius Sunday at 12 noon. "It's a real fast turnaround from tonight to Sunday afternoon," Fager said.
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